• About GHI
  • Mission
  • Strategic Priorities
  • Message from the Director
• GHI Network
  • At Boston University
  • Steering Committee
  • Program Partners & Sponsors
• Research
  • For BU Faculty
  • Project Highlights
  • Pilot Project Program
• Education
  • For Students
  • Professional & Continuing Education
• Outreach
  • Distinguished Visiting Scholar Program
  • Alumni Village
• Get Involved with GHI

In this section:

• For BU Faculty
• Project Highlights
• Pilot Project Program

GHI Mission

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) at Boston University Promotes Multi-Disciplinary Research, Education, Outreach and Policy Studies Across and Beyond the Boston University Community. GHI’s Goal is to Reduce Disparities in Health by Supporting the Generation and Application of Knowledge, Fostering "Global Literacy” Among our Students, and Developing Partnerships with International Health and Science Leaders, Scholars, and Practitioners around the World. More »

Pilot Project Program

. . . Connecting, Collaborating, Making a Difference

The Global Health Initiative is supporting two pilot, interdisciplinary global health projects that are connecting Boston University faculty at the Charles River and Medical campuses in new and important ways and are currently seeking outside funding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music in Community: An Instrument of Community Wellness

Music frequently holds a special place within communities.  It offers identity and a means of bringing the community together.  There is a strong belief that music, under the right circumstances, contributes to health and community wellness, as it can be an articulation of a community’s health or lack thereof.
This project will explore three fundamental questions: 1) in what ways can music provide a means for understanding the health of a community; 2) how has music been used to articulate a community's sense of its own health; and 3) how has music been used to communicate health-related messages.

Measuring Social Policy Performance: A Model-based Approach

For many years, the separation between political science and public health was nearly complete.  The health of nations was conceptualized as a medical, economic, or sociological problem.  “Politics” had nothing to do with it.  In recent years, as health care has risen to the forefront of domestic politics in OECD countries, the political components of public health have been duly recognized and a substantial academic industry has arisen to explain (and perhaps even reform) this neglected relationship.
In this project we aim to provide a measurement model of the relative success of domestic and international actors in solving problems of human development. It is a descriptive model with strong prescriptive overtones, much like the UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI). However, unlike these alternate measures, our “residual” or model-based approach partials out exogenous factors that cannot reasonably be attributed to a country’s government.

If you are interested in becoming involved with the Global Health Initiative, or to discuss ideas for interdisciplinary research projects in global health, please contact Gerald Keusch, Director, keusch@bu.edu, or Constance Cramer, Deputy Director, ccramer@bu.edu.