The Dept of Geography at UConn is hiring TWO PhD students with an interest in geospatial data science, digital cartography, participatory GIS, and health disparities from Fall 2024!

Title:  Multidimensional Structural Racism and Moderating Role of Psychosocial Resources on cancer-control Behaviors in African Americans. Click here for details.

Funding Agency:  National Institute of Health

Project PI and PhD Advisor: Debs Ghosh (Contact at debarchana.ghosh@uconn.edu with your CV) 

Study purpose:  Cancer disparities impacting African Americans are deeply rooted in historical social injustices such as structural racism, housing discrimination and redlining, struggling educational systems, and concentrated poverty. It is well-established that the neighborhood where a person lives can have a considerable impact on their health and health behaviors. This includes cancer control behaviors, a primary driver of cancer incidence and mortality. Little is known about multilevel and longitudinal influences of structural racism and discrimination (SRD) in predicting cancer control behaviors, and the potential role of protective psychosocial resources. This is particularly true among African Americans, who suffer a disproportionate cancer burden. The proposed study will quantitatively measure SRD, evaluate its longitudinal role in cancer control behaviors, and examine the moderating role of psychosocial resources in African-American adults. Under the supervision of Dr. Ghosh, the potential students will construct an index of SRD from publicly available data and use a suite of geospatial methods including but not limited to spatial statistics, multidimensional data analysis, data visualization, digital cartography, and community-based-participatory GIS methods.

Required and preferred qualifications:

Required

  • MA/MSc in Geography or related fields (e.g., environmental science, public health, social work)
  • Advanced visualization skills
  • Basic programming skills ideally in Python and R.
  • Basic Statistics
  • Basic experience and skills in managing large databases
  • Strong communication skills (in written and spoken English).
  • Passion for geospatial data analysis!

Preferred

  • Spatial statistics
  • Interest in learning community-based-participatory research (CBPR) methods including public-participatory GIS (PPGIS)

 

PhD Dissertation: There is tremendous potential and ample opportunities to develop a unique yet related PhD topic from this project with the variety of databases used in this project, and from rich research collaborations with other investigators and research consultants.

 

Application Process and Deadline: The deadline for Fall 2024 admission the deadline is December 15th, 2023. For a more detailed application procedure check our admissions page.