Understanding Epidemics, 26.04.20
Epidemics are biological phenomena, but it takes more than a biologist to understand them. The historian Charles Rosenberg's classic book, The Cholera Years (1962), was a path-breaking study showing that epidemics cannot be understood outside the social, cultural, and policy context in which they play out. Disease doesn't just happen to us: How we construct our understanding of it and reaction to it can tell us a lot about our culture and times. Using the example of cholera in the nineteenth century and the more recent AIDS epidemic, we will explore the nature of disease and discuss the possible consequences of COVID-19.
Prof. Charles Rosenberg
Chair: Prof. Oren Harman