Workshop Resources

An Introduction to the Google Gemini API

March 16, 2026 

Hosted by Nick Hemauer (Ph.D. Student in Political Science), this workshop will introduce participants to Google’s Gemini API. We will discuss what an API is, why you would want to use an API for commercial LLM usage, how to onboard onto the Gemini API, and a handful of examples for image/text classification and code generation.

Subsalt: Stop Waiting for Health Data

February 23, 2026

Phil Endres and David Vanness ask the question: What if you could start exploring real-world health questions now, instead of waiting weeks or months for data access? Join us to see how synthetic data can responsibly expand access, accelerate learning, and change how research actually gets started at Penn State.

Career Agility for the 2026 Labor Market

February 16, 2026

As the labor market shifts from the “Great Resignation” to “job hugging” and AI-driven uncertainty, social scientists are increasingly navigating career pivots rather than linear progression. This short workshop and discussion hosted by Jennifer Nicholas, Director of Postdoctoral Affairs, will feature an evidence-based framework for transitioning across roles and sectors without starting over.

Policy Engagement for Researchers: Opportunities and Building Community

February 2, 2026

Max Crowley and Michael Donovan discuss and learn about opportunities and resources around engaging with policymakers and government with the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative. They cover resources and opportunities for community building and training.

Funding Opportunities at the Russell Sage Foundation

October 6, 2025

Stephen Glauser, Program Officer for the Russell Sage Foundation, discussed upcoming funding opportunities.

Dispelling Myths About The Research Misconduct Process

October 7, 2024

By Courtney Karmelita, D.Ed., who oversees the Research Integrity Program and serves as the Research Integrity Officer (RIO) at Penn State, including the College of Medicine, Commonwealth campuses, and all institutes and labs.

In this presentation, Dr. Karmelita provided an overview of how research misconduct is handled, including the various phases and outcomes. The RIO also addressed common issues that were brought to her attention and sought to dispel myths and misconceptions about the process. Learn more.

Midlife in the US/National Study of Daily Experiences (MIDUS)

April 15, 2024

Dave Almeida, professor of human development and family studies, presented a hands-on tutorial about using Midlife in the US/National Study of Daily Experiences (MIDUS) data for research. View the presentation slides.

2024 Resources

August 19, 2024

An Initiative for Faculty Success and Equity Workshop was held for a faculty workshop on building knowledge and providing practical skills on how to better center equity and inclusion in the search process and career development with a focus on Penn State tenure-line faculty.

The Initiative for Faculty Success and Equity Workshop included a hybrid (in person and live-streamed) morning session open to all Penn State faculty as well as in-person workshops in the afternoon.

Lunch was provided for all in-person participants and the day wrapped up with networking and cocktails.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Timothy Eatman, Educational Sociologist, Publicly Engaged Scholar and Inaugural Dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community and Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark, was the event's morning keynote speaker.

Sponsored by the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research's Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity.

2023 Resouces

August 17, 2023

The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research (OSVPR) Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity hosted a faculty workshop on building knowledge and providing practical skills on how to better center equity and inclusion in the search process and career development with a focus on Penn State faculty.

Workshop Materials

• Next Steps Materials (Sharepoint Site)

Reading Materials Recommended by Joyce Yen

• Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists by Ellen Daniell. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300510843/every-other-thursday/
• An Inclusive Academy: Achieving Diversity and Excellence by Abigail Stewart and Virginia Valian. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545266/an-inclusive-academy/
• The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-No-Club/Linda-Babcock/9781982152338 and the https://www.thenoclub.com/
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. By Priya Parker. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/319055/the-art-of-gathering-by-priya-parker/
• Lessons from Plants by Beronda Montgomery. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674241282
• So You Want to Talk about Race and Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ijeoma-oluo/so-you-want-to-talk-about-race/9781580058827/?lens=seal-press and https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ijeoma-oluo/mediocre/9781549150302/?lens=seal-press
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566247/white-fragility-by-dr-robin-diangelo/
• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown. https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html

Welcome Remarks

• Andrew Read, Interim Senior Vice President for Research
• Deborah Ehrenthal, Director of the Social Science Research Institute

Keynote Speaker

• Joyce Yen, Director of the University of Washington (Seattle) ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change (Keynote Speaker)
• Wendy Hanna-Rose, Mentoring Models for Faculty Success Chair and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Introduction of Keynote)

Enhancing Inclusion and Belonging in the Faculty Experience: A Conversation with Faculty

• Jenny Hamer, Professor of African American Studies, Interim Associate Vice Provost and Senior Faculty Mentor, Office for Educational Equity; Director of the Midcareer Faculty Advancement Program (Moderator)
• Ray Block, Brown-McCourtney Career Development Professor in the McCourtney Institute and Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies (Moderator)
• Jeanine Staples-Dixon, Professor of Literacy and Language, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (Panelist)
• Theresa Vescio, Professor of Psychology (Panelist)
• Stephen Wilson, Professor of Psychology (Panelist)

Enhancing Inclusion and Belonging in the Faculty Experience: A Conversation with Penn State Deans

• Jenny Hamer, Professor of African American Studies, Interim Associate Vice Provost and Senior Faculty Mentor, Office for Educational Equity; Director of the Midcareer Faculty Advancement Program (Moderator)
• Ray Block, Brown-McCourtney Career Development Professor in the McCourtney Institute and Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies (Moderator)
• Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts)
• Tracy Langkilde, Verne M. Willamon Dean of the Eberly College of Science
• Kimberly Lawless, Dean, College of Education
• Craig Newschaffer, Raymond E. and Erin Stuart Schultz Dean of the College of Health and Human Development

The Geroscience & Dementia Prevention Consortium: Ambulatory Assessments for Cognitive and Brain Health

December 8, 2022 by Dr. Jonathan Hakun

The ability to sensitively detect changes in cognition at multiple timescales is essential to a wide range of disciplines including human development and aging, neuroepidemiology, public health, behavioral medicine, and the clinical and biomedical sciences. A central problem faced by investigators who depend on longitudinal cognitive outcomes is that the brain can be a bit of a moving target, subject to a wide range of physiological and contextual factors and adapting quickly to the tests used to measure its functioning. Over the past several years our team has been involved in the development of digital tools that directly take on short- and longer-term variation in cognition as a feature of interest in view of generating new insights into healthy cognitive aging, risk for advanced cognitive decline, and dementia prevention. These tools include ecological momentary assessments, ultra-brief performance-based cognitive assessments, and wearable devices (e.g. activity monitors and fitness watches) that help richly characterize cognition, experience, and behavior over the course of participants’ daily lives. While each technique generates high resolution data useful for a wide range of research questions, combining these intensive data streams to understand cognition as it is situated in everyday contexts may hold the potential to make the greatest theoretical and applied impact.

Dr. Hakun reviewed a wide range of basic and applied research conducted by the team using these tools and highlighted efforts by the Penn State Geroscience and Dementia Prevention Consortium to support broader collaboration using this approach.

Not a Level Playing Field: How the American Experience Differed Between Industrial-Era Italian and Mexican Immigrants

November 17, 2022 by Dr. Jennifer Van Hook

Dr. Van Hook’s talk focused on the upward mobility of Italian migrants in comparison to Mexican migrants in the first half of the 20th century.

Using linked Census data and newly digitized school records, Van Hook and co-author Jim Bachmeier demonstrated that Mexican American's disadvantages were owed largely to their concentration in Texas and the racist schooling and labor practices there. In contrast, Italian Americans lived primarily in the Northeast and Midwest, where they benefitted from the rapidly rising investment in public schooling in those regions of the country. Overall, European immigrants benefitted from a relatively inclusive policy environment.

Engaging in Implementation Science: What You Need to Know

March 28, 2024 by Dr. Erika Crable

The one-hour seminar described the foundations of implementation science (e.g., terminology, conceptual models and frameworks, study design, implementation strategies). It was presented by Erika Crable, PhD, MPH, University of California San Diego.

Dr. Crable is an implementation scientist whose research focuses on health policy, comorbid substance use and mental illness, and health equity for publicly insured, uninsured and underinsured populations. 

This event was jointly hosted by the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI).