Jamon

ADVANCE works with campus leadership to act as a catalyst for advancing the study and practice of equity, inclusion, and justice for women and others from historically underrepresented groups who are faculty in the academy. Jamon Van Den Hoek completed the ADVANCE Seminar in the summer of 2016 as a member of Cohort 2C, a special cohort of Assistant Professors. Not only does Van Den Hoek participate in efforts to create a more just academy, he works diligently to combat oppression and serve underrepresented groups across the globe. Below is an excerpt from Terra, an OSU research magazine, that highlights Van Den Hoek's work with internally displaced people who are fleeing violence and natural disasters in their home countries. 

Mapping the missing millions

"You may have undertaken crowdsourcing by asking your Facebook friends for a recommendation for a good recipe using chanterelle mushrooms, or the best plumber in town, or what brand of laptop to buy. CEOAS assistant professor of geography Jamon Van Den Hoek has an even better idea for how to use the hive mind: he will ask thousands of volunteers to use a smart phone app to help find informal settlements occupied by internally displaced people, or IDPs.

Like refugees, IDPs are people who have been forced to leave their home. Unlike refugees, IDPs have left their home but not their country, fleeing violent conflict, natural disaster or some other precipitating event. They have not asked for asylum because they have not left their own country, and remaining in a war-torn nation can often put them at tremendous risk.

The ultimate objective of Van Den Hoek’s project, recently funded by NASA, is to use satellite imagery to find IDP settlements that are not currently included in national or global maps of human settlements, and to begin to assess the status of those settlements with respect to United Nations sustainable development goals." Read the full story here.