Rebecca Wolfe

“The U.N. and so many other aid organizations have been doing humanitarian relief work in the [Gaza] Strip for a long time. They know how to operate in these situations. They have experienced staff, and that’s just been wiped out,” said @rebeccajaynewolfe.bsky.social

My conversation with @jchaltiwanger.bsky.social was one of the most insightful & thought-provoking I’ve had in a long time about Gaza. What’s so heartbreaking is that we know how to get people aid; it doesn’t have to be this way.

Agreed. Been talking about Gaza in class all term, and no issues, even with disagreements. Yesterday had to consider the threat from those in the background (being cagey intentionally)

I've thinking similarly--Iran is playing into Bibi's hands, giving him more excuses to stay in power, and the road to a more reasonable, less egocentric government longer.

You haven’t been to Mindy’s in Bucktown for awhile; and it’s worth it.

Opinion | The U.S. Must Change Course on Gaza Today Global leaders, and especially the U.S. government, must understand we cannot save lives in Gaza under these conditions.

From Opinion

“A significant change in approach from the United States government is needed today to pull Gaza back from this abyss,” the heads of six of the world’s leading humanitarian groups write in a guest essay.

The same thing happened to me at Pickathon in 2018. Dinosaur Jr was the band (I was also there in 2016)

I’m beginning to regret not going. I saw her years ago & she didn’t blow me away. But everyone is raving about this show.

Thank you for this, as I’m spending the holiday in bed with Covid. (And 2nd year in a row I’m missing my Turkey Trot)

Come work with me on research and Bright Line Watch!

Research Associate in Quantitative Social Science
apply.interfolio.com/136516

Position starts August 2024; application review begins 1/15.

Profs: Please share w/your students! Previous associates have gone on to Stanford, Google & data science

My spark bird. Prospect Park in 2005

Agreed. Being able to work with others will also be a signal of your productivity. I know few social scientists who publish solo authored articles after their dissertation.

I'm incredibly excited to share my new PNASNews
article with Chris Grady, Danjuma Dawop, & Lisa Inks
on creating societal change amid conflict via a contact-theory program: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Thank you!! I wasn't aware of this (we largely reviewed the experimental literature).

Lastly, when I would talk about this project with my PhD advisor, Herb Kelman, he'd tear up, saying how proud he was of me, doing academic research from a place of practice.

This was also an EGAP project from start to finish. Matt Lisiecki matched us with Chris Grady, a political science PhD student at IllinoisPolSci. We received invaluable feedback at
EGAP feedback sessions both at the design & write-up stages.

But then I wanted to know if it worked. It took another 7 years to identify a program that was ready for us to conduct an RCT on. Lisa Inks was a fabulous partner in thinking through how we did this. Danjuma Dawop ensured the program was implemented well.

This was a deeply personal project for me. In 2008, as I was designing my first contact theory program for Mercy Corps
in Sri Lanka, I was overcome by a feeloing of deep gratitude--after years of studying social psychology, I was finally bringing theory to practice.

We also theorize that the reason we see both attitude & behavior change is the length of the contact program--18 months. It may be that behavior needs to change, and with more time, attitudes follow.

We theorize that this spillover to the wider community was due to the publicness of the contact, which led to norm change. People knew the leaders were in dialogue & there was a public manifestation of the contact through joint projects (cooperation being a key Allport condition)

Additionally, we look at those who participated directly, those who resided in treatment communities but didn't participate in activities & those who had no exposure to the program, and find indicative evidence of spillover of trust and security, but not of self-reported contact.

For example, in treatment communities, herders were more likely to attend markets & trade with farmers in treatment communities than in control communities.

We find that the contact among community leaders led to increased 1) contact, 2) trust & 3) perceived security among members of the wider community, not just the direct particiapnts. We measure these using a combination of survey, behavioral & observational measures.

We study this in North Central Nigeria, where Mercy Corps
was implementing a USAID_CPS
peacebuilding program between farmers and herders, whose disputes over land, water & other resources were becoming increasingly violent.

A major criticism of contact-theory programs, & many peacebuilding programs in general, is that the effects do not spread beyond those who directly participate. We examine whether spread from a couple of key community members to the rest of the community is possible.

I'm incredibly excited to share my new PNASNews
article with Chris Grady, Danjuma Dawop, & Lisa Inks
on creating societal change amid conflict via a contact-theory program: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Lastly, when I would talk about this project with my PhD advisor, Herb Kelman, he'd tear up, saying how proud he was of me, doing academic research from a place of practice.

This is an example of what makes EGAP the most intellectually generous community I have ever been part of.

This was also an EGAP project from start to finish. Matt Lisiecki matched us with Chris Grady, a political science PhD student at IllinoisPolSci. We received invaluable feedback at
EGAP feedback sessions both at the design & write-up stages.

But then I wanted to know if it worked. It took another 7 years to identify a program that was ready for us to conduct an RCT on. Lisa Inks was a fabulous partner in thinking through how we did this. Danjuma Dawop
ensured the program was implemented well.