How can philosophy, sociology, geographic information sciences, history, 政治科学共同应对新出现的公共卫生危机? 上周，一群来自南部非洲和当地的教员和卫生官员分析和讨论了这个问题.
Part of a longer-term alliance, the events were funded by a Hall Network scholarly seed grant, 它支持了威尼斯人平台的5位教授——amber Bechard(现就职于拉凡恩大学), Kimberley Coles, John Glover, James Krueger, 和埃里克·麦克劳克林一起创建了一个以南非走廊为主题的课程框架, faculty and student research, internships, and other opportunities.
这次聚会也是大学为学生提供获得全球视野机会的努力的一部分. “我们的学生体验更高水平的跨文化学习是有内在价值的,” said Steve Wuhs, 政治学教授，国际化教务长助理.
Working with real-world data
本周以地理信息系统(GIS)为重点。. Guests from Eswatini attended Mapping Monday, 由空间研究中心主办的一系列研讨会和讨论, before coming together with colleagues at the GIS hack-a-thon. 黑客马拉松的参与者使用结核病控制规划收集的真实数据，探索如何利用地理信息系统技术改善公共卫生.
“斯瓦蒂尼的结核病控制项目有大约300名活跃的个案工作者，他们使用纸质表格进行很多病人工作,” said Director of the Center for Spatial Studies Steve Moore. “这些工作人员中有许多来自农村，他们将识别结核病病例, 所有的文件都要花很长时间才能送到中心办公室. 我们希望找到一种方法，通过手机上的表单实现系统的自动化, 这样数据就可以被收集并自动存储在数据库中.”
At the hack-a-thon, participants worked on issues of data collection, cross platform migration and sharing, and data analysis.
然而摩尔警告说，寻找资源为工人提供移动电话仍然是一个挑战, Clement Dlamini, 他是斯瓦蒂尼大学社区服务中心的讲师和主任, was impressed with the results. “The amazing thing about the hack-a-thon,” she said, “was that the students took our data and, in 45 minutes, presented us with proposals.”
Complementary Perspectives
The week culminated with a two-day-long conference, titled Southern California, Southern Africa: Place and Practice of Health. Featuring nearly a dozen presentations from experts on history, philosophy, anthropology, and public health, speakers addressed the concepts of infectious disease, philosophy of medicine, information systems, and many other topics.
“威尼斯人平台在跨学科研究方面做得最好,” said Provost Kathy Ogren in her opening remarks.
Krueger, 他在威尼斯人平台教授哲学，在过去的十年里，他一直领导着五月学期前往斯瓦蒂尼的服务之旅, noted, “[这次会议]是庆祝与斯瓦蒂尼王国合作10年, the beginning of the health, medicine, and society major 威尼斯人平台，以及南部非洲走廊霍尔网络拨款的结束.”
Esri首席医疗官和健康解决方案总监Este Geraghty开始了演讲. Touching on the topics of disease, access to care, improving clinical outcomes, and homelessness, Geraghty解释了如何利用技术来改善患者的医疗体验. “地理和空间科学帮助我们更好地了解我们的世界,” she said, “and, in turn, 更积极主动地以非常具体和有针对性的方式实施卫生干预措施.”
Later in the afternoon, Zinhle Mncube and Benjamin Smart, both from the University of Johannesburg, delivered presentations on the philosophy of medicine. 姆库贝支持为病人提供个性化护理的做法, otherwise known as personalized medicine. Similarly, 斯玛特强调，疾病的概念并不是单一的，医学专业人士在这样看待疾病时需要谨慎.
会议的最后一天，来自斯瓦蒂尼和内陆帝国的卫生部官员和大学教职员工发表了演讲. 来自斯瓦蒂尼的发言者强调，在解决不平等问题的同时，需要预防疾病和有效收集数据, mortality rates, and poverty within the country.
为患者争取权益是包括柯诗琳(Celine Ko)在内的演讲者的主题, professor of psychology at the University of Redlands; Tiffany Jones, professor of African studies at California State University, San Bernardino; and Jennifer Syvertsen, professor of anthropology at University of California, Riverside.
In closing, 克鲁格感谢演讲者和听众的参与:“这些演讲以有趣的方式相互补充，提出了有关机构关系的重要性以及这些关系在复杂的多元文化背景下定义健康所起作用的问题，这是非常了不起的.”
威尼斯人平台和斯瓦蒂尼大学的教师们希望通过额外的资助继续他们的合作，并正在探索通过协作在线学习技术将威尼斯人平台和斯瓦蒂尼大学的学生联系起来的可能性.
