News
New Research Shows Higher Education at Graduate Level Reproduces Inequality
According to new research from KU doctoral candidate ByeongDon Oh and ChangHwan Kim, professor of sociology, the socioeconomic leveling students enjoy applies only to undergraduate degrees. Once advanced degrees become part of the equation, individuals experience the effects of classism in terms of employment opportunities and earnings. ...
New Research Will Explore Renewable Energy, Water Treatment, Ammonia Production to Bolster Rural Resilience
A team of researchers, led by Mary Hill, University of Kansas professor of geology, won a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The researchers will explore the economic viability of using renewable energy to increase usable water resources by treating degraded and unused water supplies, and produce ammonia...
Kansas Economic Policy Conference to Offer Multiple Perspectives on Economic Development
What are the factors that contribute to economic development? Can policy play a role in promoting economic growth? These questions will be discussed in this year’s Kansas Economic Policy Conference, hosted by the Institute for Policy & Social Research on Oct. 24. The conference will convene scholars, policymakers and experts...
Kansas Statistical Abstract Offers Insights on State Population, Life Expectancy Rates, and More
Sixty-eight of 105 counties in Kansas peaked in population before the Dust Bowl. The most recent Kansas Statistical Abstract includes this and other interesting facts about Kansas. The Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas recently published the 53rd Edition of the Kansas Statistical Abstract, which...
New Conference Strives to Unite State’s Health Economics Community
With a $49,763 grant from the National Science Foundation, David Slusky, Associate Professor of Economics, will organize a series of conferences on health economics with a focus on Kansas. The inaugural Kansas Health Economics Conference will take place on March 23, 2020, at the KU Adams Alumni Center. Slusky just...
NSF Grant Supports Study on How State Cuts to Higher Education Affect Research Output
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $236,790 grant to the University of Kansas for Donna Ginther, professor of economics and interim director of the Institute for Policy & Social Research, to study the effects of research funding on research outputs. Ginther will collaborate with Joshua Rosenbloom, professor and chair...
$1.4M NSF Grant Will Support Technology Education for Women Post-incarceration
Over the past 40 years, the population of women in state prisons across the United States has increased by 834 percent. While men continue to be the vast majority of the prison population, the rate of incarceration of women is growing. ...
Erin Adamson, Department of Sociology, Awarded NSF Grant
Erin Adamson, doctoral student in the Department of Sociology, was awarded a $15,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for her project, "Lifestyle Migrants and the Economics of Integration in Caribbean Costa Rica." Adamson will work with thesis adviser Joane Nagel, University Distinguished Professor of Sociology. ...
Unwinding Podcast Features Center for the Study of Injustice Director Hannah Britton
Episode 5 of Unwinding features Hannah Britton, professor of political science and women, gender & sexuality studies and director of the Center for the Study of Injustice at IPSR. Meet Britton, and learn about how she incorporates hands-on, qualitative research methods in her classes, the invaluable contributions of her students,...
Donna Ginther to Lead Institute for Policy & Social Research
The Institute for Policy & Social Research (IPSR) has announced that Donna Ginther will serve as its interim director starting in June. Ginther is a Dean's Professor of Economics and director of the Center for Science, Technology & Economic Policy at IPSR. Steven Maynard-Moody, professor in the School of Public...
Symposium Will Explore ‘Manpower and Morale’ Following the 1968 Tet Offensive
A University of Kansas symposium is bringing together scholars of the U.S. war in Vietnam — including some who are Vietnam veterans — to discuss what followed the 1968 Tet Offensive. "Manpower & Morale after Tet" will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at the Adams...
IPSR Designated Lead Agency of Kansas’ State Data Center
The University of Kansas Institute for Policy & Social Research (IPSR) has been designated the lead agency of the State Data Center for the state of Kansas. In this role, IPSR — under the leadership of Xan Wedel — will work with a network of other Kansas data centers to...
IPSR-Affiliated Students Awarded Prestigious Graduate Fellowships
Congratulations to D'Arlyn Bell and Natasha Chenot, who were both offered the Graduate Research Fellowship by the National Science Foundation! This fellowship provides three years of support for students who "have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements in STEM or STEM education. ...
Colloquium Will Put Greenland Archaeology in Focus
Climate change in Greenland and how it poses a threat to archaeological heritage will be explored in an upcoming presentation by Hans Harmsen, archaeologist and curator of the Greenland National Museum & Archives. Harmsen will present "Vanishing Histories: Greenland, Climate Change & the Threat to Archaeological Heritage" at 4 p.m. ...
Research to Intervention: KU Study on College Responses to Sexual Assault Is Being Put To Use
When it comes to responding to reports of sexual assault, response teams on college campuses face a set of barriers that prevent their work from being as effective as similar programs run by cities and counties, according to a University of Kansas study. ...
Beyond Discourse Symposium Examining Human Trafficking Research
An interdisciplinary symposium examining human trafficking research is coming to the University of Kansas Lawrence campus April 4 and 5. Beyond Discourse: Critical and Empirical Approaches to Human Trafficking is sponsored by the Institute for Policy & Social Research. ...
KU Center Receives Grant to Support Economic Development
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration has awarded a five-year, $700,000 university center grant to the University of Kansas. Together with an equal match by KU donors and time commitments by faculty and program staff, a total of $1.4 million will be devoted to assist economic development and...
HERS Student Studies the Environmental Impacts of Bison and Fire on the Prairie
Willow Kipp, a participant in the 2018 Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Summer Program, is studying the important role bison and fire play in sustaining the biodiversity of the Blackfeet Reservation's prairie. Her project is titled “Bison, Fire, Nitsitapii: Utilizing Innii (Bison) and Controlled burns to Maintain Short-Mixed Grass Prairie...
New Book Tracks Role of Religion in Nigerian Politics
Ebanezer Obadare, sociology professor and IPSR affiliate, published "Pentecostal Republic: Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria." Religious divisions have famously plagued Nigeria throughout its history. However, the triumph of a charismatic Christian movement, coming on the heels of the restoration of democracy in the West African country...
Kansas Economic Policy Conference to Focus on Future of Tax Policy
The state of Kansas has received national attention in recent years following its 2012 tax cuts, which were eventually reversed. State lawmakers for several years have also grappled with a Kansas Supreme Court decision that has declared unconstitutional funding levels for K-12 education, and on the local level, the number...
Teaching, Scholarship Awards to IPSR Affiliates Steven Maynard-Moody, Alfred Tat Kei Ho, and Angela Park
The University of Kansas School of Public Affairs & Administration (SPAA) received word it would be recognized for outstanding public service education, given by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration at its annual conference next month in Atlanta. ...
Drug Trafficking Can Support Terrorist Activity, but Not in Ways Most Believe
Drug trafficking does help facilitate terrorist activity, but it is more often linked to local militant groups instead of well-known international terrorist organizations, according to a new study that includes a University of Kansas political science researcher. "Although there is a relationship between drug trafficking and terrorism, the drug trade...
DCF: No Link Between Welfare Reform, Rising Foster Care Numbers; Researchers Say Otherwise
University of Kansas researchers have received a grant to determine how economic and social safety net policies affect child neglect across the United States and create a tool policy makers and practitioners can use to predict how proposed prevention strategies can address child abuse and neglect. Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, associate professor...
Stakeholders Say Immigrants Are ‘Essential’ to Western Kansas Economy at KU Policy Conference
Stakeholders at a University of Kansas-hosted policy conference agreed Thursday that immigration and trade are essential to the Kansas economy, despite rhetoric emanating from Washington aimed at stymying the inflow of immigrants and renegotiating trade deals. ...
New Book Urges Humans to Hear the Call of Place
"The agency of place" is the key concept in a new book co-authored by University of Kansas Associate Professor of Geography Jay T. Johnson, an affiliate of KU's Indigenous Studies program. “Being Together in Place: Indigenous Coexistence in a More Than Human World” (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) by Johnson...
Annual Kansas Economic Policy Conference to Examine Immigration, Trade and State’s Economy
Immigration in recent decades has contributed to more than half of Kansas' population growth, which is a key component of economic growth. In addition, Mexico is Kansas' largest trading partner. With so much national policy discussion on reforming immigration and trade, economists, educators and policymakers from across the state will...
Kansas Statistical Abstract’s 51st Edition Demonstrates Growth in Wind Energy, Special Taxing Districts
For more than a half-century, the Kansas Statistical Abstract has provided invaluable social and economic data that has aided Kansans in promoting and governing their communities. The Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas in September published online for free the 51st edition, which contains a...
We Need to Talk About ‘Hot’ Female Economists
A new study shows female economists are more likely to be described using raunchy language. "The more types of people you have in a profession, the broader the questions and the more expansive the research," said Donna Ginther, an economics professor at the University of Kansas. ...
Racial Profiling of Latino Immigrants Influences Indigenous, Non-Indigenous Families Differently, Study Finds
Immigration policies focusing on racial profiling and criminalization of Latinos in the United States have direct implications on immigrants and their family members, many of whom are U.S. citizens, according to a study by a University of Kansas researcher who explores these consequences amongst mixed-status families in the Midwest. ...
Medicaid Expansion Possibly Reduced ‘Medical Divorces,’ KU Economists Find
States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act possibly saw a reduction in the number of "medical divorces," in which a couple separates its assets when one partner is diagnosed with a degenerative disease, according to a working paper by two University of Kansas economists. ...