An online journal dedicated to global and domestic health, The Torch, is launching
online Thursday.
Led by students from the College of Arts and Science, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, the College of Nursing and NYU Abu Dhabi, the publication is intended to encourage members of the NYU community to publish their thoughts about modern issues in health and well-being. The topics range from biomedicine to socio-political issues, according to their website.
“Every semester, we invite students and scholars to share and publish innovative ideas, research and involvement in public health initiatives and to exchange sustainable and modern approaches to the ways problems are being addressed within the public health community,” said CAS junior Renán Orellana, one of the journal’s editors-in-chief.
Orellana added that the idea for the journal came when the NYU Global Institute for Public Health launched in Spring of 2012.
“I have come to understand the potential of so many members of the NYU community in becoming effective leaders in the international push to bring public health to the forefront of the global agenda,” he said.
The articles that are currently online include “Malaria in Ghana: Gaining Insight on Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Malaria Vector Control” and “Can Bacteria Make You Fat?”
“I think people tend to minimize what public health is,” said NYUAD junior Jorge Zárate, an editor-in-chief. “I think that leading a healthy life is the whole package, making healthy decisions [and] also promoting healthy decisions in others.”
“A lot of the burdens in our society today can be alleviated if people would take care of themselves a little better,” Zárate said. “There are so many aspects of public health that are more complicated than people give them credit for.”
Diana Silver, faculty adviser of the journal, said she is enthusiastic about the initiative taken by students to start the publication. She added that the journal is an incredible project because it came from students for students.
“This isn’t faculty-led or faculty-directed,” Silver said. “The excitement and the enthusiasm for the project came from the student body, some of whom are enrolled in the public health program and some of whom are interested in public health from other disciplines.”
“I think it reflects this growing sense that NYU is able to take advantage of that public health is an area that touches on lots of disciplines and requires engagement from all kinds of intellectual orientations interested in making measurable improvements in the world,” Silver added.
