Meet the Interns: Developing a global perspective
Interview with Tim Sweetser
Since starting at Clark in 2003, Tim Sweetser has been exploring courses in two seemingly
unrelated areas, mathematics and International Studies. The
International Studies Stream
(ISS) is a Clark program that allows all students, regardless of major, to develop a
global perspective on the world around them.
An ISS summer internship allowed Tim-somewhat unexpectedly-to combine his love of
numbers with research into factors affecting global infant mortality. In a recent interview, summarized below, he discussed his paid
internship working with sociology professor and ISS director
Robert J. S. Ross.
How did you come to work with Professor Ross and apply for the ISS internship?
Bob was co-advisor for a course that I took my freshman year,
ID182:
Are We Modern Yet? He seemed like a nice guy, and when I was choosing my next set
of courses, I noticed that he was offering an urban sociology course
(SOC125:
Cities and Suburbs) that sounded pretty interesting. I took the class
and did well, and he and I seemed to relate well.
About that time the International Studies Stream office was
looking for a work-study student to serve as an office aide. I thought that
having taken a class with Bob, he might act in my favor when applying for the position.
He did, and I got the job. So one thing led to another, and Bob asked if I would be
interested in working with him on an article he was writing, to be included in a
collection dedicated to sociologist William Gamson. So I started helping with that,
and then Bob asked if I would be interested in a summer internship working on another
one of his projects. I applied at the eleventh hour, and was one of three selected by a
panel of faculty.
What was that project about? What did your internship involve?
We wanted to study, on a global level, the factors that affect infant mortality.* The infant mortality rate is widely accepted as an indicator of a society's general well-being, the idea being that if a society can take care of its young babies, then usually things are okay.
I created a database for as many countries as possible that included information on infant mortality and a number of other possibly relevant variables. Sociologists consider a number of factors such as Gross Domestic Product per capita, level of education, etc. More recently a group of sociologists called dependency theorists** have been examining factors related to international trade regulations, to see if they affect infant mortality. One of their major "bad guys" is the International Monetary Fund. I included an "IMF pressure index" variable in my analysis that was developed by sociologists York Bradshaw and Mark Schafer. They wanted to measure how IMF policy might increase a country's debt burden, and thus adversely affect its standard of living.
Bob also asked me to include a specific measure--the Gini Index†--that public health researchers use, but which is less familiar to sociologists. The Gini Index was developed as a way of quantifying income inequality within a country. It's based on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents a state of perfectly unequal distribution and 0 indicates perfectly equal income distribution. It's been shown by public health researchers that less inequality in a society is strongly correlated with higher standards of living for all classes.
So where were you trying to go with this?
After the data was collected, I used a statistics program called Statistics Program for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to run something called a regression analysis. I was not familiar with the program, but a former Clark student of Bob's, now in grad school at Boston College, was very helpful in tutoring me. The regression analysis shows how much each variable contributes to variations in infant mortality. Our analysis suggested that the most significant factor is Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (which is to be expected), but Gini is not far behind it.
Where did you find your data? Was it readily available?
Generally yes. The World Bank publishes something called the World Development Indicators database. I found most of the data that I needed there. Some of the Gini data I had to look elsewhere for. I also read articles to look for other potentially useful variables, such as the IMF pressure index I mentioned earlier.
Where did you have to go to get this information? Was most of it available via the internet?
Yes. Clark subscribes to the World Development Indicators database so I could access it directly using the computers at Clark.
Are you going to continue working on this project?
Bob asked me that yesterday! He's suggesting that we co-author a paper to write up our results.
Can you compare participating in research with more traditional classroom learning? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Conducting research is a different way of doing things. It's nice working independently, getting in the midst of things. Maybe it just the classes I take, but they seem to give you a theoretical background, while research is the practical aspect. It's more hands on. This kind of project is an example of what you can get involved in at a research institution like Clark.
Which do you like better, theory or practice?
I'm kind of a theory junkie! That's part of the reason I like mathematics, I enjoy the pureness of abstraction. But I really enjoyed my internship.
I understand that Professor Ross spoke on National Public Radio's program The Connection yesterday in a segment called "Made in China".
Yes. The Chinese labor organizer Pun Ngai, who was also on the program, is speaking at Clark today. I'll be going to her presentation. One of the cool things about Clark and knowing Bob is the connections. I've been invited to have dinner with her after the lecture
* Infant mortalitiy is defined as the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births
**Dependency theorists take the position that underdevelopment in countries is a result of exploitation by first world countries.
†Developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini.
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Additional Resources
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| Tim Sweetser |
 World Bank map showing infant mortality by country for 1999. Click to enlarge.
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