TwoWest Virginia Universityprofessors are expanding their research to learn more about how climate change affects the economic sustainability of communities in Africa.

Brent McCusker, a professor of geography, and Joseph Hodge, a professor of history, recently received a $135,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to expand their unique, multidisciplinary research. The funding will support the 2008 Malawi Summer Research Program to examine poverty and climate change issues.

The NSF grant will allow McCusker, Hodge and WVU students in geography, history, political science and international studies to visit 200 African households to administer surveys and conduct interviews while working with a historian, agricultural economist, local environmental scientist and geographers.

Four WVU undergraduate and three graduate students will be participating in the research. The team includes Chris Napier of Morgantown, geography; Emily Renzelli of Bridgeport, political science and philosophy; Emily Kayser of Point Pleasant, international studies and Spanish; Domenick Poster of Bridgeport, international studies; Kathleen Fichtel of Salisbury, Md., a doctoral student in history; Naomi Shanguhyia of Morgantown, a doctoral student in geography; and Matthew Wood of Moundsville, a masters student in history.

This unique research fieldwork in Malawi, to be conducted this year in monthlong trips, will allow the research team to examine how and where people make money, what their opportunity and transaction costs are, and how climate change and urbanization will affect rural households.

When examining diversity in economic development, many economists do not look at space, distance, environmental variables or characteristics of families,McCusker said.They tend to focus on broad economic trends, not on the people that create them.

It is unusual for a research grant to include such a large component of hands-on learning, McCusker noted. The researchersdays will be spent interacting with members of African households and using GPS to determine how far people travel to diversify their incomes.

As a geographer and social scientist, I wanted to look more closely at how climate change and location affects peoples economic choices,McCusker said.Instead of looking at climate change and suggesting a country move from one agrarian crop to another to maintain sustainability, we look at how people are dealing with the change on the ground. Where and how far are they traveling from home to supplement their income? What manageable incremental changes can be made to help maintain economic sustainability for the area?

McCusker and his team hypothesizeamong other ideasthat climate change in Malawi will lead to massive urbanization as families move from rural communities to take advantage of jobs in urban areas. This theory applies, not only to sub-Saharan Africa, but to communities around the world, including West Virginia.

Access to this kind of unique field research opportunity at the undergraduate level is a wonderful opportunity for our students,said Mary Ellen Mazey, dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.It makes the work of the classroom come alive, gives undergraduate students valuable research skills and makes them more competitive candidates for graduate school and the job market.

One of the students, Fichtel, applied for the program to gain real-world work experience and conduct research beyond her laptop. She believes that working with the research group will emphasize the benefits of collaboration among disciplines.

Malawis primarily agricultural economy is a perfect place to investigate a connection between the people, their lifestyles and their landscapes,Fichtel said.

McCusker is just as excited about the project as the students. Growing up in Berkeley Springs, he always took an interest in the connection between poverty, environment and land usage. At WVU , he found common ground with Hodge, and the two professors felt there was a need for collaborative research in social science to help create sustainable economies. In 2005, they began collaborative research in South Africa and Malawi. After a conference on land use and climate change issues in 2006, McCusker established an official link between WVU and the University of Malawi-Zomba.

McCusker graduated cum laude with a bachelors degree in geography and international studies from WVU in 1995. He received his masters and doctoral degree from Michigan State University in 1997 and 2001, respectively, where he studied food security, human-environment interaction, livelihood and land-use change in southern Africa. He completed postdoctoral research at WVU as an assistant professor from 2001-02. Currently, he teaches courses in geography with a focus on Africa, land use, climate change and sustainable economic development. McCusker has been working in southern Africa since 1994.

Hodge earned a bachelors degree in history from the University of Waterloo in 1990, a masters in sociology and international developmental studies from the University of Guelph in 1993 and a doctorate in history from Queens University at Kingston in 1999, all located in Ontario, Canada. He joined the faculty of WVU in 2005. His research analyzes the various connections among science, economics, culture and politics of colonial development in east Africa.