Our Fellows Features are designed to highlight the background, experiences, and aspirations of our multidisciplinary and diverse cohort of Fellows in the Population Analytics in an Aging Society training program. Half a year into the program, our Fellows have been exposed to topics ranging from Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) and systematic reviews to novel research in the fields of population science and data analytics. This month, we caught up with Fellows, Amber and Sophie, to learn about their research and what they have gained from the program.
Featured image: Amber Duynisveld (left) and Sophie Liu (right).
Amber Duynisveld
Through a research position at the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging and previous experiences working in the long-term care sector, Amber became passionate about improving long-term care conditions and investing in other overlooked yet important topics, including informal caregiving and the life of long-term care workers and their relationships with residents. To this end, Amber is pursuing a master’s degree at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology. She is interested in staff well-being, aging, mental disability, and quality of life.
Amber is one of only five master’s students in this year’s cohort of 20 CAnD3 Fellows, who are mostly composed of students in their doctorate or post-doctorate studies. “As someone who is just entering the professional field, CAnD3 has been a big step for my professional development and offers opportunities to learn that I wouldn't otherwise have, “ says Amber. “It’s been a great chance for me to be pushed forward in healthy ways, and the variety of topics that are covered are helping me to flesh out my knowledge and skill base. I have also developed my professional networking and communication skills, which are important as my career requires networking for knowledge dissemination.”
Amber is a small-time DJ and performed her first professional gig this February (left photo)! Amber says that music is a great way for her to connect with herself and other people. Amber also enjoys getting out of the city and is pictured on the right camping in the Cape Breton Highlands with her partner.
In complement to her background in mathematics and gerontology from her bachelor’s degree, Amber says that she will be using the data processing and analysis techniques from the CAnD3 training in her work and thesis. Ultimately, Amber aspires to combine her passions for statistical analysis and social sciences to influence policy to bring about positive change in long-term care.
Learn more about Amber and connect with her.
Sophie Liu
Sophie’s research interests lie at the nexus of two fields: race, ethnicity, and migration, on the one hand, and the sociology of law, on the other. She explores how knowledge about the law affects how immigrants and minority groups mobilize legal practices in Northern American contexts. “Observing firsthand the multidimensional nature of immigrants’ lives, their achievements and compromises, and my own multicultural experiences caused me to reflect on issues of migration and mobility and sparked my interest in this research area,” she explains.
Sophie is currently a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia with a background in journalism. “I have three lines of inquiries that I hope to explore through the lens of legal consciousness: (1) how immigrants and minority groups use the law to make claims to justice and equality; (2) how these groups perceive the law to be relevant to their racial and ethnic status in the social system and how does this intersect with questions of gender, class, and sexuality; and (3) how legal struggle shapes racial/ethnic identities.”
In her spare time, Sophie plays an instrument called Guzheng and likes to travel. The photo above was taken on her recent trip to Germany.
Sophie says she decided to train with CAnD3 to learn new and creative empirical methods to complement her experience in experimental, ethnographic, and archival approaches. “My work frequently draws on survey data and survey experiments. I can envision the science and policy training from CAnD3 contributing to my research in study design, estimating models, post-estimation interpretation, and particularly making a real-life impact through my graduate studies.” In the future, Sophie aspires to leverage computational and data science methods toward policy-driven and action-oriented immigration research.
Learn more about Sophie and connect with her.
About the training program
°Őłó±đĚýPopulation Analytics in an Aging Society Training Program is a rigorous one-year fellowship hosted by the Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-Making (CAnD3), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and based at Â鶹AV. The program upskills rising researchers in Master's, PhD, and postdoctoral programs in the areas of population data science and computational population social science from a multidisciplinary lens. It also connects Fellows to experiential learning opportunities, which include hands-on research projects and internships with government, not-for-profit, and private sector CAnD3 partners. Since the first year of the program in 2020, CAnD3 has trained 32 Fellows and welcomes 20 new Fellows for the 2022-23 Academic Year.
