Epidemics and Society

Catalog description

Epidemics have quickly become one of the most important subjects of the twenty-first century. In this course students will study the history of selected epidemics including but not limited to Black Death, Smallpox, Malaria, Cholera, Tuberculosis, Influenza, Polio, SARS, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19 in contemporary society. The inventory of themes will include the nature of demographic and epidemiological change, the social and cultural significance and impact of each scourge, the organized public health response to each epidemic, and the development of medical therapeutics and technologies in different spaces and time. Epidemics are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning. On the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand society’s structure, its standard of living, its political priorities, as well as the global influences.