Raffaele Vacca

About

I am a sociologist and social network analyst. My main research interests are migration and ethnicity, health disparities, social network methods, and scientific and knowledge networks. 

I am currently based at the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, as a Research Assistant Professor. I also work at the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) and Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). 

Much of my work is about migration and immigrant integration in Europe and the US. This was the subject of my PhD research at the University of Milan, Italy, which was funded by the University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology and Social Sciences, and included one year of fieldwork in the Sri Lankan immigrant community in Milan. 

I also work on social networks and health disparities, particularly in immigrant minorities. I am part of the Network Science Program at the UF CTSI and BEBR, which studies and evaluates networks of professional collaboration among scientists, their dynamics and impact on scientific activity, and strategies of network intervention to promote team science.

I teach quantitative methods for social research, social network methods, and data analysis with R.

Personal Webpage

CV

Teaching

• Social Network Analysis (SYA 7933; ANG 5420)

• Advanced Quantitative Methods (SYA 7933)

• Applied Statistical Analysis I (NGR 6840)

• Applied Statistical Analysis II (NGR 6845)

Research

Areas of Specialization

• migration and ethnicity

• health disparities

• social network methods

• scientific and knowledge networks

Selected Publications

• Leone Sciabolazza, V., Vacca, R., Kennelly Okraku, T., & McCarty, C. (Under review). Detecting and analyzing research communities in longitudinal scientific networks. PLoS One.

• Hamilton, C., Vacca, R., & Stacciarini, J. M. R. (Accepted). The Emergence of Team Science: Understanding the State of Adoption Research through Social Network Analysis. Adoption & Fostering.

• Kennelly Okraku, T., Vacca, R., Jawitz, J. W., & McCarty, C. (Accepted). Identity and publication in non-university settings: Academic co-authorship and collaboration. Scientometrics.

• Vacca, R., Solano, G., Lubbers, M. J., Molina, J. L., & McCarty, C. (Accepted). A Personal Network Approach to the Study of Immigrant Structural Assimilation and Transnationalism. Social Networks.
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• Mao, L., Stacciarini, J. M. R., & Vacca, R. (Under review). A spatio-socially integrated approach for community-based health and intervention — A case study on improving well-being of US Latino immigrants. Family & Community Health.

• Stacciarini, J.M.R., Vacca, R., Wiens, B., Loe, E., LaFlam, M., & Pérez, A. (2016). FBO Leaders’ Perceptions of the Psycho-social Contexts for Rural Latinos. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 37(1), 19-25.

• Bosma, L., Vacca, R., Martinez, J. L., Boyle, R. G., & Lew, R. (2016). Developing Capacity, Skills, and Tobacco Control Networks to address Tobacco-related Disparities: Leadership and Advocacy Institute to Advance Minnesota’s Parity for Priority Populations (LAAMPP). Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 9(1).

• Vacca, R., McCarty, C., Conlon, M., & Nelson, D. R. (2015). Designing a CTSA-Based Social Network Intervention to Foster Cross-Disciplinary Team Science. Clinical and Translational Science, 8(4), 281–289. http://doi.org/10.1111/cts.12267

• Vacca, R., & Boffi, M. (2009). The Residential Trajectories of Immigrants in Milan in the 1990’s: A Spatial Analysis of Census Data. (In Italian.) Cheiron-Materiali e strumenti di aggiornamento storiografico, 52, 109-138.