CALL FOR PAPERS: Advancing Research on Race, Ethnicity and Inequality / A Virtual Workshop Hosted by the U.S. Census Bureau / November 14-15, 2023
The U.S. Census Bureau has recently launched an initiative to advance research on race, ethnicity and inequality by 1) enhancing data access for researchers from underserved racial and ethnic communities and increasing engagement with these researchers, 2) improving methods and data products related to racial and ethnic inequities and measurement, and 3) building a community of practice around this work. This initiative will enable the U.S. Census Bureau to leverage the extensive survey and administrative data resources it collects and houses in order to produce more relevant information. The Census Bureau disseminates numerous public use datasets and data products and, through its network of Federal Research Data Centers (FSRDCs), the Bureau makes data available for use by researchers from colleges and universities and other research institutions.
As a component of this initiative, the Census Bureau is convening a virtual workshop to bring together new perspectives on how these data resources can be better leveraged to both measure the dimensions of race and ethnicity within the U.S. population, and to investigate how systemic inequalities by race/ethnicity can be seen within U.S. society.
Workshop submissions can be attuned to measurement of concepts pertaining to race, ethnicity, inequality, and inequity; innovative ways to bring data together to address relevant research questions; and visions for how quantitative research can better illuminate these questions. We invite both submissions with a methodological focus, and those that investigate substantive empirical topics. We seek submissions from researchers from across the range of disciplines that use and collect data in their research (including demographers, economists, sociologists, statisticians, and other scholars whose research encompasses race and ethnicity as analytic categories), and who may work in government, academic, and non-profit settings. We welcome submissions of research explorations using Census Bureau data, as well as those that use data from other sources.
Topics of potential interest include but are not limited to the following.
- Substantive investigation and/or documentation of inequalities by race and ethnicity in employment, housing, education, health, income, and other areas
- Discussion of how improvements to measurement of race and ethnicity can enhance measurement of economic and social inequality
- Possibilities for how administrative records can extend, enhance, and improve research on race and ethnicity, and inequality
- New ways of documenting inequality, including formulating new conceptual and/or statistical methods and measures for capturing inequality, and investigating inequality by race/ethnicity in particular social or economic domains
Please submit drafts of scholarly papers or extended abstracts for consideration. Extended abstracts must be sufficiently detailed to allow workshop organizers to judge the merits of the paper. Typically, extended abstracts consist of a statement of the research question (and the underlying theory, if appropriate), the data and research methods, and preliminary findings. If accepted, researchers will give a 15-minute virtual presentation of their work, and participate in discussion with fellow presenters and audience members. A draft of the accepted paper will be due to session organizers by October 30, and the finalized presentation will be due November 6.
Please submit paper drafts to census.race.ethnicity.inequality.workshop@census.gov by August 14. Authors of accepted submissions will be notified by September 11.