April 22, 2025
On March 14 and April 2, the Illinois Diversity and Equity Science (IDES) working group launched its Spring Brown Bag Series – an event series designed to bring faculty together in a conversational and collaborative setting. By highlighting the diverse range of scholarship happening across campus, this series offers researchers a space to share their work, spark meaningful dialogue, and explore cross-disciplinary ideas.
At the first brown bag event on March 14, Marynia Kolak (assistant professor, geography & geographic information sciences) and Benjamin Osswald (assistant professor, accountancy) presented their recent research. Kolak’s lightning talk centered on how we can use spatial data and GIS to address inequity and better understand social determinants of health. Osswald’s lightning talk explored the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 and its impact on communities, revealing potential gaps in local capacity and access to clean energy opportunities.
The second IDES brown bag on April 2 brought researchers from across campus to discuss exciting quantitative research. Speakers Alaysia Brown (assistant professor, human development and family studies) and Benedek Kurdi (assistant professor, psychology) shared their work on the use of data-driven methods to examine social attitudes and well-being. Kurdi presented on his research into how implicit attitudes towards select groups have changed globally in the past two decades, while Brown spoke about using machine learning to uncover predictors of wellbeing among African Americans.
Together, these brown bag events showcased the power of interdisciplinary, data-driven research to answer pertinent questions related to equity, health, the environment, and human well-being. From spatial data and public policy to machine learning and psychological trends, the series highlighted how secondary data can be harnessed across fields to drive meaningful insights and social impact. Looking ahead, this momentum will continue with upcoming programming from CSBS, which will offer a workshop and panel on machine learning applications in the next academic year. By creating space for dialogue and collaboration, the IDES brown bag series is helping to cultivate a vibrant community committed to advancing social and behavioral science research through evidence-based approaches.