Lectures on Causality in the Social Sciences, Spring 1997

In Honor of Herbert L. Costner

This series of lectures, featuring world leaders in the study of causality from several disciplines, will be held in Spring Quarter 1997 on the University of Washington campus to honor and celebrate the contributions of Sociology Professor Emeritus Herbert L. Costner to the University over a period of 40 years. Here is the current schedule. More detail will be added as it is obtained.

In each week of the series, there will be a Thursday evening public lecture at 7:30pm in room A110 of the Physics-Astronomy Building and a Friday lunchtime seminar at 12:30pm in room 120, Smith Hall. The Thursday evening lecture will be followed by a reception.

Lectures on Causality in the Social Sciences
Date Place Speaker Title
Thursday, April 3, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 Robert M. Hauser, University of Wisconsin Ability and the American Dream: Has Anything Changed?
Friday, April 4, 12:30pm Smith 120 Robert M. Hauser, University of Wisconsin The Walking Dog Model, Tetrad Differences, and Sibling Resemblance
April 10-11 No Causality Lectures (CSDE 50th Anniversary Conference, featuring Stanley Lieberson and others)
Thursday, April 17, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 Judea Pearl, UCLA From a Century of Statistics to the Age of Causation
Friday, April 18, 12:30pm Smith 120 Judea Pearl, UCLA The Logic of Cause and Effect: Unifying Counterfactual, Graphical and Structural Models
Thursday, April 24, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 Andrew Abbott, University of Chicago The Causal Devolution
Friday, April 25, 12:30pm Smith 120 Andrew Abbott, University of Chicago. Gibbs sampling for subsequence resemblance: application to rhetorical sequences
Thursday, May 1, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 Michael E. Sobel, University of Arizona Causal Inference in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Friday, May 2, 12:30pm Smith 120 Michael E. Sobel, University of Arizona Some Log-Linear and Log-Nonlinear Models for Ordinal Scales with Midpoints, with an Application to Public Opinion on the Environment
Thursday, May 8, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 James J. Heckman, University of Chicago Identifying And Estimating Counterfactuals in the Social Sciences: The Role of Rational Choice Theory
Friday, May 9, 12:30pm Smith 120 James J. Heckman, University of Chicago Characterizing Selection Bias Using Experimental Data
Thursday, May 15, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 Donald B. Rubin, Harvard University Techniques for Drawing Causal Inferences from Imperfect Studies
Friday, May 16, 12:30pm Smith 120 Donald B. Rubin, Harvard University Causal Inference from Imperfect Studies with Nonignorable Treatment Assignment
Thursday, May 22, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 Clark Glymour, Carnegie-Mellon University Costner and the Structure of the Unobserved
Friday, May 23, 12:30pm Smith 120 Peter Spirtes, Carnegie-Mellon University Recent Advances in Causal Modelling Using Directed Graphs
Thursday, May 29, 7:30pm Physics-Astronomy, A110 Michael Hout, University of California, Berkeley Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth
Friday, May 30, 12:30pm Smith 120 Michael Hout, University of California, Berkeley Speed Bumps on the Road to Meritocracy: Occupational Mobility of Women and Men in the U.S., 1972-1994

Sponsored by: College of Arts and Sciences, Departments of Sociology, Economics and Statistics, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology.

Organizing Committee:Kim Korinek, Daphne Kuo, Elizabeth Mounce, Adrian Raftery, Thomas Richardson, Eric Zivot.

Thanks for organizational help and support to: Bruce Bennett, Susan Jeffords, Pete Guest, Charles Hirschman, Donna Leonetti, Bettina Shell-Duncan, John Simpson, Dick Startz, Werner Stuetzle.

Thanks for help with the receptions to: Travis Anderson, Shawn Bauldry, Christine Bond, Amy Darke, April Eaton, Daniela Golinelli, Michelle Keim, Chris Murray, Andrew Schaffner, Todd Simmons, Chris Volinsky, Jennifer Ward-Batts.

Related Course: SOC 582: Causality in the Social Sciences