Hispanic Heritage Month at the UCONN School of Social Work

The UCONN School of Social Work kicked off the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) on September 14th with a presentation at the School by students who participated in a recent travel study program to Vieques and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The course, Social Work Practice in Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics and Human Rights, included meetings with leaders of grassroots movements on the Island of Vieques; visits to social service agencies; discussions with Social Work faculty and students at the University of Puerto Rico; and tours of cultural and historical sites.

The presentation today also served as the opening event of this fall’s Latin@Educational Series, sponsored by the Puerto Rican and Latin@ Studies Project (PRLSP) and the Latin American Student Organization (LASO). The following programs will be presented: Latin@ Immigration and Migration: Realties and Myths (October 25, 2011); On Being LatinA (November 1, 2011); Health Disparities and Latin@s: Micro & Macro Perspectives (November 8, 2011); and Coming Out, The Never Ending Process: Panel Presentation by LGBT Latin@s (November 15, 2011).

The programs will be held at the School of Social Work from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on the dates noted. They are free and open to the public.

Jan Lambert, Social Work Librarian

New WRDS databases!

Recently acquired new WRDS databases from the UConn School of Business include:

• ExecuComp – provides compensation history for U.S. directors and current compensation for executives for companies within the S&P 1500. Includes over 80 different compensation related data items, coverage of each company’s top 5 executive officers, Over 35 measures of company financial performance, comparable data across companies & industries, and companies contained in the S&P 500, S&P 400 MidCap and S&P SmallCap 600 indexes.
• RiskMetrics - this dataset includes details on the structures and practices of boards of directors at S&P 500, S&P Midcap, and S&P Smallcap firms. WRDS keeps 1996-2006 old IRRC-methodology data in the Legacy file.
• comScore - tracks web browsing behavior. Offers web visitation and transaction behavior data based on a random sample from more than 2 million Internet users. Includes panelist-level browsing and buying behavior from tens of thousands of web users.

Still to come – CRSP/Compustat Merged Database and CRSP Indices

Access databases from http://wrds-web.wharton.upenn.edu/wrds/

US Credit Rating Downgrade

While markets swoon and political bickering continues over downgrade of American debt, the Christian Science Monitor reports that at least 3 other rating agencies had already downgraded US before S&P’s latest drop from AAA to AA+. Top foreign holders of US debt include China, Japan, and United Kingdom.

According to this article on MSNBC website, countries that still have an S&P triple A rating include Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Japan lost its AAA rating in the late 1990s. It was further downgraded earlier this year. Other countries to lose their triple A rating in recent years include Ireland, Italy, and Spain.

CNNMoney points out the irony that there are currently four U.S. companies: Automatic Data Processing, Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft that have a better credit rating than US. All four are non-financial firms and that according to S&P, “insulates them from the impact of the U.S. downgrade, which has little effect on the companies’ ability to make good on their debts.” The article reports that, “decades ago, there was a lot more AAA to go around. In 1983, there were a record 32 non-financial companies rated AAA. But a stumbling economy, an increasingly globalized market, and lots of mergers and acquisitions have made AAA a true rarity.”

2011 Raymond & Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture in Human Rights

Please join us for the 2011 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture in Human Rights.

“International Justice, Transitional Justice: What Have We Learned about What ‘Works’?”
Diane Orentlicher
Deputy, Office of War Crimes Issues, U.S. Department of State
Thursday, April 21 4:00 PM
Konover Auditorium, Dodd Research Center

Diane F. Orentlicher is serving as Deputy, Office of War Crimes Issues, in the Department of State while on leave from American University’s Washington College of Law, where she is a Professor of International Law. She has served in her current position, on appointment by Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, since October, 2009. The Office of War Crimes Issues advises the Secretary of State and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world.

Described by the Washington Diplomat as “one of the world’s leading authorities on human rights law and war crimes tribunals,” Professor Orentlicher has previously served in various public positions, including Special Advisor to the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Professor Orentlicher is also co-director (on leave) of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of American University. From 1995 to 2004, she served as founding director of the law school’s War Crimes Research Office, which provides legal assistance to international criminal tribunals and courts established jointly by the United Nations and national governments. Professor Orentlicher has presented congressional testimony on a range of issues of international criminal law, including U.S. legislation on genocide.

Research Highlights

Book Talk
The Solemn Sentence of Death: Capital Punishment in Connecticut

Lawrence Goodheart, Professor of History, University of Connecticut

In his new book*, Dr. Goodheart addresses a broad range of questions about the rationale for and application of judicial execution in Connecticut since the seventeenth century. In addition to identifying the 164 people who have been put to death for crimes during the state’s history, he analyzes their social status in terms of sex, race, class, religion, and ethnicity. He looks at the circumstances of the crimes, the weapons that were used, and the victims. He reconstructs the history of Connecticut’s capital laws, its changing rituals of execution, and the growing debate over the legitimacy of the death penalty itself. Come hear Larry Goodheart discuss his research!

Thursday, April 21
12:35-1:35
Undergraduate Building Room 216

*Copies will be available for sale.
Sponsored by Trecker Library.

Seeking Data or Statistics?

The Social Science Statistics website (http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/socialscistats) provides links to data from various fields in the social sciences, including business, education, human rights, political science and health to name a few. Data is mostly public access and may be downloaded when available.

Our “Portals for other Social Science Statistics” lists out 15 academic and highly trafficked sites including links to ICPSR, which holds 500,000 digital files containing social science research data, and the “Scholars’ Lab” from the University of Virginia which features geo-spatial, statistical and image resources.

See our “Data Software and Analysis at UConn: tab for information about our University resources for data, such as statistical software guides, computer labs, and help locating software for use or purchase on campus.

Research Highlights

Strip Club: Gender, Power, and Sex Work
Kim Price-Glynn, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut

Wednesday, March 30
12:35-1:35
Undergraduate Building Room 209, Greater Hartford Campus

In 2001 sociologist Kim Price-Glynn was hired as a cocktail waitress at The Lion’s Club, a run down New England strip club catering primarily to male customers. During her employment there, she came to know the strippers, their place in the hierarchy, and what their day-to-day lives were like. The result is her groundbreaking book, Strip Club: Gender, Power and Sex Work*. Bernadette Barton writes, “Strip Club exposes a taken for granted sexism we need to be reminded of in our Girls Gone Wild culture.”
*Copies will be available for sale.
Sponsored by Trecker Library