Western Uganda is considered a major hotspot for infectious diseases and these African Studies Program faculty are asking the question, “Why?” “Mapping Hot Spots,” a thematic cluster coordinated by professors Tony Goldberg (Pathobiological Sciences), Neil Kodesh (History), and Josh Garoon (Community and Environmental Sociology), is working to build a collaborative at UW-Madison devoted to exploring the reasons why Sub-Saharan Africa is a prominent region for these diseases, be it science, history, society, or culture. The program, “strives to inform ecological understandings of the ways in which past experiences with disease and disease interventions influence the present,” state the professors on the Robert & Gene E. Holz Center website. The project is funded by the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, including research, public workshops, and graduate seminars.