HMS Student and Faculty Member Publish Research on Malaria

Faculty-student collaborations represent a key goal of the HMS program. While many research collaborations provide a fruitful dialogue or exchange for both students and faculty members, it is a rare success to have this develop into a scholarly publication. HMS student Maria Theresa Mejia and HMS faculty member Professor Kelly Austin collaborated on a project examining malaria prevalence across developing nations during the 2013-2014 academic year. This research has just been published in the International Journal of Comparative Sociology, and represents Theresa’s debut as a published health scholar. Their article, co-authored with Mark Noble of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, examines data from 90 developing countries to identify how gender inequality shapes the transmission of malaria. Theresa and Professor Austin are continuing to collaborate on research looking at the social predictors of health this fall as Theresa pursues a Master’s Degree of Sociology here at Lehigh.