Adventist Social Science Scholars Meet this Week at Andrews University

15 May 2018  |  A total of 35 Adventist scholars in the social sciences are sharing research reports about family, faith, health, social change, education, young adults, church membership, ministries and issues May 14 through 19 during the annual meeting of the Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association (AHSRA) and a pre-meeting conference for graduate students and scholars in the first five years of their careers. The gathering includes specialists in anthropology, community development, economics, political science, psychology, social work, sociology and related fields.

Keynote speakers include Dr. David Williams, an Adventist sociologist on the faculty of Harvard University in Boston; Dr. Edwin Hernandez, also a sociologist who is currently president of the Adventist University of Health Sciences in Orlando; and Dr. Randal Wisbey, president of La Sierra University, the Adventist institution in Riverside, California. Dr. Duane McBride, long-time chairman of the behavioral sciences department at AU, spoke yesterday evening, sharing “Reflections on 45 Years of Research Discovery.”

Research topics to be presented at the meeting include “The Impact of Family Support and Rejection among Adventist LGBT Millennials,” how faith-based research impacts government and institutional policies, public health research, motivation for social change and activism, education and young adults, church membership and outreach, and issues in the church.

Many of the papers will eventually be available at www.adventistresearch.org on the Web.