Methodological Issues in Quantitative Research on Race and Ethnicity

Instructor(s):

• Abigail Sewell, Indiana University

This workshop examines conceptualizations of race and ethnicity and the concomitant issues related to the quantitative analysis of race, ethnicity, and racial/ethnic inequality. The course features research design and analytical issues in the measurement of racial and ethnic populations in the United States.

The first week focuses on research design issues. Lectures in the first week review research designs, sampling strategies, and datasets that have been used throughout the history of quantitative research on race and ethnicity and that are being used in contemporary research on race and ethnicity. The second week focuses on approaching race and ethnicity as latent ("left-hand side") variables. Lectures in the second week address methodological issues related to reliable and valid measurements of race and ethnicity, multidimensional constructions of these concepts, and the categorization of race and ethnicity. The third week focuses on approaching race and ethnicity as manifest ("right-hand side") variables. Lectures in the third week address analytical models that attend to the relationships among race, ethnicity, and social inequality - including group comparison models, mediation-moderation models, and intersectionality models. The fourth week focuses on analytical issues related to making causal inferences about race and ethnicity. Lectures in the fourth week address the challenges of decomposition analysis, longitudinal analysis, organizational effects, and statistical power.

The workshop is designed for faculty and research professionals from academia, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies, including advanced social science graduate students who are familiar with data analysis and quantitative research. Individuals with a substantive interest in policy-relevant social science research on race, ethnicity, and diversity will benefit by their participation in this workshop. Participants obtain hands-on experience by designing, completing, and presenting a quantitative research project using a dataset of their choosing archived in the Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD) at the ICPSR. For more information about accessing RCMD datasets, go to www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/RCMD/ and click Data.

Requirements: the content of the course is geared towards persons who have a background in multiple regression. Prerequisites for the course include a course in linear regression. Individuals lacking this prior experience will face difficulties in comprehending many of the presentations. Participants are encouraged to enroll in other appropriate ICPSR Summer Program statistics course(s) while taking this workshop.

Fees: Consult the fee structure.

Tags: race, ethnicity

Course Sections