Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Aug 7

Endowed Chair in Demography at the rank of Full Professor at Notre Dame Population Analytics is now open for applications. I highly encourage established faculty with a strong research program and entrepreneurial spirit to apply! @ndsociology.bsky.social

apply.interfolio.com/171683

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Jun 19

Notre Dame Population Analytics (ND Pop) is hiring an Associate Director! Start date of September 2025! Be part of a rapidly growing and highly resourced pop center!

careers.nd.edu/search-caree...

3743990008317484 - Associate Director|ND Pop

Make a difference at Notre Dame! Contribute to groundbreaking research, shape young minds, and create a supportive campus. Your work matters.

careers.nd.edu

Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Apr 4

But watch their executive bonuses break records this year.

Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Mar 28

It wasn’t me.

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Mar 12

So the official language on our contract says that we cannot release results that have not been cleared by IES review. However, what’s the legal constraint if one party ceases to exist!?

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Mar 12

Currently checking ND’s contract with NCES

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Mar 4

**JOB ALERT** Notre Dame's new Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. $75k/year, $15k research expenses, open area, & up to 2 years. Come work with great Sociology colleagues in a resource rich environment.

apply.interfolio.com/164239

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Reposted by Steven Alvarado

American Sociological Association @asanews.bsky.social · Feb 25

The ASA, American Federation of Teachers @AFT, and AFT-Maryland, facilitated by @DemocracyForward, have filed a complaint today in federal court in Maryland challenging the “Dear Colleague Letter” published by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.

Educators Sue to Challenge Trump Administration's Efforts to Weaponize Civil Rights Laws, Attack Educational Programs and Student Opportunities - Democracy Forward

bit.ly

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 21

Sos boricua?!

Reposted by Steven Alvarado

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Feb 18

Hundreds of asylum seekers were deported from the U.S. to Panama and locked in a hotel without access to lawyers, or their own passports.

Under Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan, Some Migrants Are Being Sent to Panama

The administration has asked Panama to take in hundreds of people who can’t easily be sent back to their countries. Many say they are in danger.

www.nytimes.com

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 16

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for graduate training fellowships from NSF and IES. My work depends on federal restricted data. This is absolutely devastating for future generations of researchers. I’m glad @agamoran.bsky.social is using his immense influence to fight back.

Adam Gamoran @agamoran.bsky.social · Feb 16

What I told @science.org about the wanton cancellation of valuable education statistics & evaluation contracts: “In my view, the termination of these contracts is capricious and wasteful and cruel…” 1/2 www.science.org/content/arti...

Canceling data collections could imperil efforts to improve U.S. education, a former Trump appointee warns

Ex-head of National Center for Education Statistics describes impact of massive halt to survey research

www.science.org

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Reposted by Steven Alvarado

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · Feb 15

Ed Department: DEI Violates Civil Rights Law

In a sweeping and unprecedented letter issued over the weekend, the Office for Civil Rights declared race-based scholarships, cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies illegal. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/4hCrabL

Trump administration threatens to rescind federal funds over DEI

In a sweeping and unprecedented letter issued over the weekend, the Office for Civil Rights declared race-based scholarships, cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies illegal.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Steven Alvarado

AERA @aeraedresearch.bsky.social · Feb 14

We continue to monitor and act on developments relating to federal data accessibility, collection, & reporting. Our partners at ICPSR have an archive tool for crowdsourcing government data. We encourage AERA members to utilize it. Learn more: www.aera.net/Research-Pol...

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 15

This is a critical task for the sake of knowledge production. My research team will start to get the entire HSLS uploaded to ICPSR.

Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 15

I’ll try to see if Notre Dame sociology or our new pop center can make a monetary donation. I’ll also see if my team can start getting the NLSY 79, CYA, and 97 data uploaded.

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 15

I was just thinking that ICPSR should be the nation’s data repository earlier today. Thank you @icpsr.bsky.social on behalf of all us researchers who depend on quality federal data.

Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · Feb 14

FANTASTIC

ICPSR at U Mich is coordinating the archiving of at-risk federal data (all of it?)

You can upload data you have & search for data you don’t have

www.datalumos.org/datalumos/

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 14

This tracks newrepublic.com/article/1908...

This Small Rust-Belt City Holds the Secret to Democrats’ Latino Woes

Latino voters shifted dramatically toward Trump in the last election. Reading, Pennsylvania offers a clue to how Democrats can claw them back.

newrepublic.com

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 14

It is more important than ever to heed Mills’s call and focus our sociological gaze on elites.

Fabian Pfeffer @fabianpfeffer.bsky.social · Feb 13

About 3 months ago, the print version of this article had this lead:

"Elon Musk has 240 billion in wealth [...] is there no upper limit?"

Today, the same article came online with a small update:

"Elon Musk has 400 billion in wealth [...] is there no upper limit?"

www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Not a level playing field

LMU sociologist Fabian Pfeffer explains why the extreme wealth gap harms society and democracy and leads to a distinctly uneven spread of opportunities for coming generations. From the research magazi...

www.lmu.de

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 13

Burawoy on marketization and commodification (from 2016), Pierre Bourdieu and Karl Marx (2019), and W. E. B. Du Bois’s understanding of the period of Reconstruction (2023). #sociology

kpfa.org/episode/agai...

Remembering Michael Burawoy | KPFA

The prominent sociologist, writer, and U.C. Berkeley professor emeritus Michael Burawoy passed away on February 3. We present excerpts from three interviews with Burawoy, about marketization and commo...

kpfa.org

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 13

In my Race & Film class, I teach about Disney’s infamously racist and long-cancelled “Song of the South” - perhaps making a comeback from exile to Disney+ soon.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · Feb 13

Disney is reducing content warnings that caution viewers about racial stereotypes on some of its classic films, including “Dumbo” and “Peter Pan,” as part of a wider revamp of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs as it adjusts to the new Trump era.

Disney scales back content warnings on classic films amid DEI shift

Classic films including “Dumbo” and “Peter Pan” will no longer autoplay warnings about racial stereotypes. It comes as Trump cracks down on diversity initiatives.

www.washingtonpost.com

Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 13

After a few months of using the online ADRF platform, I was dissatisfied and decided to migrate all my NCES restricted data work back to the cold room in November ‘24. Most universities should have cold rooms by now. We’re currently modernizing ours at CREO at Notre Dame.

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · Feb 12

$900 Million in Institute of Education Sciences Contracts Axed

The National Center for Education Statistics has been hit hard while researchers say grant review panels have been halted. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/3QdLZ15

$900M in Institute of Education Sciences contracts axed

The National Center for Education Statistics has been hit hard while researchers say grant review panels have been halted.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Steven Alvarado

Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · Feb 12

U Mich doing a great job informing community about developments in research funding

research.umich.edu/fed-research...

Fed Research Blog

research.umich.edu

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 13

Another titan of the field has fallen. As a sociologist of inequality, education, & neighborhoods, I am deeply indebted to Jencks. I met him once at a breakfast at Ruth Lopez Turley’s house in grad school at Wisconsin. What an amazing scholar and human being.

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Steven Alvarado @sealvarado.bsky.social · Feb 13

FYI. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Latino men and Black women have steadily had highest labor force participation in recent decades.