Conferences
Since its inception in 1966, IRP has regularly held conferences that bring together leading scholars engaged in poverty research. These conferences are generally multidisciplinary and often include academics, students, policymakers, and practitioners. The discussions lead to broader dissemination designed to share findings with other academics, policymakers, practitioners, journalists, and the general public.
IRP often disseminates conference findings in books, special issues of leading journals, Focus, or Fast Focus. One such example is a set of books published every decade since 1977. Each volume results from a major IRP conference at which leading scholars summarize the state of the literature in poverty research and policy evaluation in a manner that is accessible to a range of readers. The “Poverty Volumes” (the most recent of which, Changing Poverty, Changing Policies, was published in 2009) review what has been accomplished and identify remaining gaps in knowledge. They are widely used in undergraduate and graduate classrooms as well as by congressional staff and journalists.
Some of the Institute’s conferences are public, some are by invitation only. If you would like more information about any of the conferences listed below, please contact Coreen Williams.
Listing of Major IRP Conferences, 1966–2011
March 2011
Employment Prospects for Lower Wage Workers: Easing the Implications of a Slow Recovery
This conference was hosted by IRP and organized by Robert Haveman, Carolyn Heinrich, and Timothy Smeeding. Financial support for the conference was provided by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A summary of the conference is provided in Fast Focus 10-2011.
October 2010
Child Poverty, Health, and Well-Being
A working conference hosted by IRP in coordination with the Center for Demography and Ecology, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, Department of Population Health Sciences, Waisman Center, and the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Sciences at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Columbia University's Population Research Center. Financial support was provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Conference organizers were Pamela Herd, Katherine Magnuson, and Barbara Wolfe.
August 2010
Take-Up of Social Benefits: Causes, Consequences, and Trade-Offs Conference
This conference was organized by Jennifer Noyes and Timothy Smeeding, with financial support from the Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
March 2010
Service Integration Summit
The summit was orgnized by Jennifer Noyes and Thomas Corbett with support from the Joyce Foundation.
September 2009
Intergenerational Mobility Within and Across Nations: The Promise of Cross-National Research
Cosponsored by the European Commission, FP 6;
the Russell Sage Foundation; and the PEW Charitable Trust,
this conference was organized by Robert Erikson, Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University;
Markus Jäntti, Åbo Akademi University;
and Timothy Smeeding, IRP Director, University of Wisconsin–Madison. This conference resulted in an edited
volume, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting: The Comparative Study of Intergenerational Mobility, co-edited by Timothy Smeeding, Robert Erikson, and Markus Jäntti,
and available from the Russell Sage Foundation, September 2011.
September 2009
Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Families, Poverty, and Policy
A working conference hosted by IRP in coordination with the Center for Research on Fathers,
Children and Family Well-Being and the Columbia Population Research Center, at Columbia University.
Tim Smeeding, Ron Mincy,
and Irv Garfinkel organized the conference and will co-edit a
planned conference volume. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is also providing financial support for this conference. Conference papers were publlished in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Vol. 635 (May 2011): "Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Families, Poverty, and Policy." Special Editors Timothy M. Smeeding, Irwin Garfinkel, and Ronald E. Mincy.
July 2009
State Innovations in Policies Supporting Healthy Families Conference
A working conference organized by IRP, with financial support from the Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
July 2008
A State of Agents? Third Party Governance and Implications for Human Services
An IRP-organized conference with financial support from
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services; the University of Arizona,
School of Public Administration and Policy, Eller College of Management;
the University of Washington, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs;
and the University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning,
and Development. A summary of selected conference findings can be found
in Fast Focus No.
1-2008.
May 2008
Changing Poverty Conference
A working conference organized by IRP, with financial support from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. This conference resulted in an edited volume, Changing Poverty,
Changing Policies, co-edited by Maria Cancian and Sheldon Danziger, and available from the Russell Sage Foundation, September 2009.
April 2008
Measuring the Role of Faith in Program Outcome
A working conference organized by IRP, with support from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, and the Bradley Foundation. A summary of this conference can be found in Fast Focus 3-2009
September 2007
Pathways to Self-Sufficiency: Getting Ahead in an Era Beyond Welfare Reform
A working conference organized by IRP and cosponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation,
and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. This conference resulted in an edited volume, Making the Work-Based Safety Net Work Better: Forward-Looking Policies to Help Low-Income Families, co-edited by Carolyn Heinrich and John Karl Scholz, and available from the Russell Sage Foundation, May 2009.
November 2006
IRP Special Sessions at Association for Public Policy and Management (APPAM) Fall Conference
Session 1: Poverty Research over Four Decades
Session 2: Poverty Policy over Four Decades
A summary of these proceedings can be found
in Focus 25(1). Spring-Summer 2007.
September 2006
Multiple-Partner Fertility
A working conference organized by IRP.
February 2006
Will Standards-Based Reform in Education Help Close the Poverty Gap?
A working conference cosponsored by the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, and the
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. This conference resulted in an edited volume published by
the Brookings Institution Standards-Based
Reform and the Poverty Gap: Lessons for "No Child Left Behind", edited by Adam Gamoran.
April 2005
Making the Politics of Poverty and Inequality: How Public Policies Are Reshaping American Democracy
An IRP-organized conference cosponsored with the Russell Sage Foundation. This conference resulted in an edited volume, Remaking America: Democracy and Public Policy in an Age of Inequality, edted by Joe Soss, Jacob Hacker, and Suzanne Mettler, and available from the Russell Sage Foundation, November 2007,
March 2005
Qualitative Approaches to the Study of Poverty and Welfare Reform: Current Challenges
An IRP-organized working conference.
July 2005
Conference on Welfare Research and Evaluation in the Upper Midwest
An IRP-organized conference held concurrently with the quarterly meeting of
WELPAN.
May 2002
Income Volatility and Implications for Food Assistance Programs
Cosponsored with the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
April 2002
Evaluations of State TANF Programs
An IRP-organized conference with
support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Office
of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.
May 2000
Understanding Poverty: Progress and Problems
Funded by the Office of
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. Additional funding provided by the Russell Sage Foundation,
the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the
Ford Foundation. This conference resulted in an edited volume, Understanding Poverty, edited by Sheldon Danziger and Robert Haveman, and available from Harvard University Press and Russell Sage Foundation, April 2002.
1999
Implementation Evaluation Methods
Cosponsored with the Research Forum
on Children and Families at the National Center for Children in Poverty,
with funding from the Joyce Foundation and the Mott Foundation.
April 1999
Nonmarital Fertility
With funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This conference resulted in an edited volume, Out of Wedlock: Causes and Consequences of Nonmarital Fertility, edited by Barbara Wolfe and Lawrence Wu, and available from the Russell Sage Foundation, June 2001.
1999
Poverty: Improving the Definition after Thirty Years
Cosponsored with
the UW-Madison LaFollette Institute of Public Affairs and the Brookings Institution,
with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
1996
Evaluating Comprehensive State Welfare Reforms
Funded by the Joyce
Foundation and the Mott Foundation.
1996
Monitoring the Effects of the New Federalism on Children, Families, and Communities
Cosponsored with the National Center for Children in Poverty, with funding
from the Foundation for Child Development. A summary of this conference can be found in Focus 18(1), Special Issue 1996.
1994
Indicators of Children's Well-Being
Cosponsored with the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, Child Trends, Inc., and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
1992
Poverty and Public Policy: What Do We Know? What Should We Do?
Cosponsored with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
1992
Paternity Establishment: A Public Policy Conference
Cosponsored with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
1991
Evaluating Comprehensive Family Service Programs
Cosponsored with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
1990
Evaluation Design for Welfare and Training Programs
Cosponsored with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
1989
Approaches to Analyzing Poverty: A Conference in Honor of Robert J. Lampman
Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
October 1988
The Effect of Taxation on Labor Supply in Industrialized Countries
Sponsored with funds from the National Science Foundation.
1986
Poverty and Social Policy: The Minority Experience
Cosponsored with the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.
1984
Income Transfer Policies and the Poor: A Cross-National Perspective
Sponsored with funds from the Council for European Studies and
the University of Wisconsin International Studies Program, supported by
the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Conference Center.
1984
Poverty and Policy: Retrospect and Prospects
Cosponsored with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
1982
Hispanics in the U.S. Economy
Cosponsored with the National Commission on Employment Policy,
with funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
1981
Wisconsin Workshop on Child Support: Research and Public Policy
Cosponsored with the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social
Services.
1980
Cross-National Study of Disability Policy
Cosponsored with the U.S. Social Security Administration and
the Rockefeller Foundation.
1980
The Social Security System and the Changing Roles of Women
Cosponsored with the Women's Studies Research Center at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, with funds from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.
1979
Universal vs. Income-Tested Welfare Programs
Cosponsored with the Ford Foundation and the U.S. Social Security
Administration.
1978
Microsimulation Modeling for Public Policy Analysis
Cosponsored with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., with funds
from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
1977
The Treatment of Assets and Income from Assets in Income-Conditioned
Programs
Cosponsored with the Federal Council on Aging.
1976
The Trend in Income Inequality in the United States
Sponsored with funds from the U.S. Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare.
1974
A Decade of Federal Antipoverty Policies: Achievements, Failures,
and Lessons
Cosponsored with the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare.
1974
Welfare Reform: Issues and Objectives
Sponsored with funds from the U.S. Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare.
1967
Psychological Factors in Poverty
Cosponsored with the Department of Psychology, University of
Wisconsin.
1966
Poverty Research, Communications, and the Public
Cosponsored with the Russell Sage-University of Wisconsin School
of Journalism Social Science Reporting Program.