IBS News

More than half a century after the Civil Rights Movement and despite its achievements, race and ethnicity are unfortunately still among the most important categories that define how people are differentially perceived and treated in the United States and beyond. 

We are particularly saddened and angered by how violent forms of policing led to the tragic and completely avoidable deaths of not only George Floyd, but also Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and Walter Scott, unfortunately only a few among many other egregious cases of police abuse and of the large number of people dying
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Stories help us piece together the past and create a collective narrative. 

Lori Peek, Director of the Natural Hazards Center, says “In the hazards and disaster field, we have been turning to a new story for a good while. The notion that natural hazards losses are inextricably linked to racism, poverty, pollution, and other slow-motion disasters is now widely accepted." You can read more about the link between natural hazards and the United Sates’ history and evolving narrative in Peek's Director's Corner article titled The Stories We Tell.

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Written by Sierra Speegle (Strategic Communication, '21)

Lori Peek and other social scientists are finding the coronavirus pandemic to be an important lens through which to study society. Recently, Peek was interviewed by Inside Higher Ed in an article titled "Social Scientists on COVID-19." 

“It’s during moments of crisis when oftentimes we can learn most about the social order,” Peek said. Peek and the Natural Hazards Center’s NSF-funded CONVERGE facility have already supported more than 80 COVID-19 social science and public health research working groups. Research topics for these groups include everything from civil liberties to what it means to ready populations for a vaccine. 

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Written by Sierra
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A study published on June 8, 2020 in the Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics has shown that early childhood intervention programs can create positive long-lasting effects for participants and their offspring. This study was a decades-long project led by Karl Hill, who is the director of the Problem Behavior and Positive Youth Development Program (PBPYD) at IBS, and also the University of Washington Social Development Research Group.

This recently published study is a long-term follow up of an earlier study started in 1980 which tested an elementary school prevention program that at enhanced teaching, parenting and child
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