Gaku Masuda

Special Researcher, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
-Academic Background: Ph.D（ABD）, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 2006
-Research Interests: Visual methods for field science, Multidisciplinary approaches to malaria control study, Muslim network study.
-URL:http://gaku.masdas.net/

My research interests include visual methods for field science, multidisciplinary approaches to malaria control and the study of Muslim networks. I have worked upon developing a variety of visual methods applicable to field science whose ultimate aim is to enrich them. Among these methods, I have developed 1) a virtual realization system of the fieldwork experience through 3D/4D modeling, and (2) a method allowing the creation of interactive/immersive panoramic movie/photography. Such visual methods have been applied to and developed through my fieldwork concerning malaria study and the study of Muslim networks.In terms of my malaria study, a research team consisting of pathogenic-microbiologists, a mathematical epidemiologist, and social anthropologists was brought together to work on a multidisciplinary approach to the transnational flows and movements of pathogens and diseases, using fieldwork in a malaria-infected borderland area. We looked at epidemiological data on malaria occurrence, microbiological laboratory analysis, and GIS analysis. My personal research topic is malaria forecast in a macro/micro area.In terms of my study on Muslim networks I have also been focusing on Muslim education networks in Southeast Asia. I have especially studied pondok, which are small religious communities where people voluntarily go to practice and study Islam in Malay society. My research topic focuses on the migration patterns (from one pondok to another) of Muslim pilgrims involved in a pondok. The motivations of migration and their historical shifts with their correlations to the emergence and demise of Islamic study communities are my main concerns.