Connor Holttum at Esri Conference
Rising senior and Student Fellow for the Center for Arts & Humanities, Connor Holttum (Philosophy, Religious Studies minor '18), attended the 2017 Esri Education GIS Conference in San Diego to learn more about the software on which he is developing a geomapping platform for the Living Religions Collaborative (LRC), directed by Elizabeth Drescher (Religious Studies). The conference provided Connor with valuable design and programming insight that aided in the development of the LRC's app-based GIS mapping platform. Connor also had the opportunity to network with educators from other colleges and universities who use similar technologies to better engage and educate students.
The LRC's mapping project aims to provide students, researchers, and local religious communities with dynamic tools for documenting, visualizing, exploring, and understanding religion and spirituality as it relates to local spaces. This summer, Connor worked with Dr. Drescher to complete the initial mapping platform, which includes maps for Sacred Spaces, Religious Communities, and Spiritual Practice. The platform will be populated with data collected by students in Religious Studies courses during the 2017-18 academic year. Connor will assist students in using the mapping tool for fieldwork in the fall quarter.
The LRC is supported by grants for the Wabash Center for Teaching & Learning in Religion & Theology, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and the Center for Arts & Humanities.