The annual Social Networks and Health workshop was held May 13-16th in Gross Hall 330 on Duke’s West campus. Partnering with DUPRI, the Professor of Sociology and DUPRI Scholar James Moody invited scholars and researchers from across the country to receive advanced training in social networks methodology, focused on implementation in the health field. Talks focused on both theoretical and implementation/application-focused training, and as this was the ‘Advanced’ year, built upon the training received in the ‘Beginner/Intermediate’ workshop the year prior. The invited speakers were from a multitude of different disciplines, including sociology, population health sciences, criminology, mathematics, ecology & evolutionary biology, OBGYN & reproductive sciences, public health, electrical engineering, and computer science.
While the ‘Beginner/Intermediate’ workshop cycle focused on basic network theory and coding, the ‘Advanced’ cycle focused on applying those skills. Day one’s talks were on the topic of Data Collection and Metrics, with speakers including James Moody (Duke), Ashton Verdery (Penn State), Tom Wolff (Northwestern), Craig Rawlings (Duke), and Bob Faris (UC Davis). Day two expanded to cover statistics and models, with new speakers including Brea Perry (Indiana University), Scott Duxbury (UNC - Chapel Hill), David Schaefer (UC Irvine), and Nina Fefferman (University of Tennessee- Knoxville). Day three covered interventions and applications within the health field, with talks by Tom Valente (USC), Carol Camlin (UCSF), Allison Comfort (UCSF), Dana Pasquale (Duke), Daniel Ragan (University of New Mexico), Carl Latkin (Johns Hopkins), and a panel of prior Social Networks and Health fellows. Then, to round out the training, the final day included discussions about the future directions of social networks and health, with an additional talk by Carter Butts (UC Irvine). The talks will be available on the DNAC website and SSRI youtube channel shortly, and prior years’ are already available there as well.
