Epidemics in World History

Catalog description

While the modern, global economy seems particularly vulnerable to the rapid and worldwide spread of disease, epidemics and pandemics have been a part of the human experience since people started living together in large numbers. This course asks how historical societies experienced, explained, and dealt with epidemic disease. Students explore the human experience with epidemics around the world from antiquity to the present and investigate how societies understood disease, their efforts to respond to or mitigate epidemics, and how these experiences shaped (and shape) our society and our understanding of each other and the world. Offered Occasionally.