Center for Social Research

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Explanations for Church Mobilization against AIDS in Africa

Despite local, national, and global attention to AIDS in Africa, an estimated 1.4 million Africans died of the disease in 2008, the same number as in 2001. As central institutions in many African societies, churches have responded to AIDS in various ways, from ignoring the disease, to providing care for the sick, to demanding state responses.

Using data from news articles and interviews with AIDS activists, church leaders, AIDS policymakers, and donor officials in Zambia, Kenya, the United States, and Ghana conducted between 2007 and 2010, Professor Amy Patterson, Political Science, presents an analysis of these church AIDS activities in Africa. She argues that church organizational structures, pastoral leadership, and the opportunities provided by globalization and the continent’s presumed “dependence” on the West shape African church mobilization on AIDS.

Please join CSR for Dr. Patterson's presentation and the ensuing discussion.

Thursday October 7, 2010 3:30 p.m., Meeter Center Lecture Hall Calvin College Refreshments provided

Professor Jason VanHorn and Nathan Mosurinjohn publish paper on 3D GIS Modeling

The CSR is pleased to report the recent publication featuring the work of our very own
Nathan Mosurinjohn, along with Calvin’s Professor of Geography, Jason VanHorn. Professor VanHorn’s specialty is terrorism geography, and in the summer of 2008 he began working with Nathan on a methodology for safeguarding politicians and other VIP’s from sniper fire using 3D modeling.

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) are frequently used in crime prevention strategies, but many approaches only make use of 2D data. In this paper, Professor Van Horn and Nathan examined 3D modeling possibilities using the tools available in GIS and Google Sketch-Up. Their goal was to be able to calculate every position sniper fire could potentially come from a given particular VIP location.

To test this methodology, the burial site of President Ford, found at the Gerald R. Ford Museum, was selected, being a location that has hosted many prominent people in the past, including Vice President Dick Cheney at President Ford’s burial. Nathan first built a digital 3D model of downtown Grand Rapids using Google Sketch-Up. He researched aerial photographs, maps, and records containing specific heights of buildings to aid him in this task. Click here to see a video of this 3D model. Do you recognize downtown Grand Rapids?

Using this model, Professor VanHorn and Nathan were then able to construct a viewshed which shows all of the places from which a person could be seen if they were to be standing at a specific location. Nathan and Professor VanHorn also researched the maximum firing ranges of different weapons and built a model which demonstrated the maximum distance that a weapon would have to fire to reach a designated area (see image below).
This instrumental research gives an example of how 3D modeling capabilities can be used in terrorism research and personnel protection, and how useful it is to conduct these analysis in 3D instead of 2D maps.

CSR Staff Updates

As the end of the school year approaches, the CSR staff is making plans for the future.

• First off, we welcome two new student research assistants: Debora Velis Guzman and Zig Ingraffia. Debora is a senior Economics and Business double major, Zig is a senior Psychology major with an English minor, and we look forward to working with both of them.

  Several Research Assistants are leaving CSR to start new chapters in their lives. Here is what they are up to!

• Kristin Booy plans to teach English in South Korea in the fall.
• Michael Evans-Totoe has accepted an internship position at Steelcase.
• Jeff Schiman will be studying Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
• Leia Vos begins a doctorate program in Psychology at Wayne State University next fall.

April 8 CSR Presentation: Data visualization with KCCS

Using data from the Kent County Congregations Study, CSR staff will showcase emerging tools and methods for visual data analysis.

Please join us:

Thursday April 8, 2010 3:30 p.m., Meeter Center Lecture Hall Calvin College

See the entire poster!

UPDATE: See the presentation (PowerPoint 2007)!