Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

The Health and Humanities Network presents “Plagues, Epidemics and Culture: Histories of Crisis and Care”

In this series, invited humanities scholars discuss their research in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has already started to permanently reshape our world and has thrown into sharp relief the networks of care that support human flourishing, as well as those structures that are inadequate and unjust.

But it is not the first or the only disease outbreak that has threatened human health and disproportionally affected those already disadvantaged by established institutions and networks of care.

Engaging with scholars focused on the histories and representations of epidemics, this series will explore what can be learned from historical changes in the cultures of care that arose from those crises. Speakers will also address how histories of bias, racism and colonialism are intimately bound up in the history of epidemics.

These talks will address how we might draw lessons and envision equitable futures of care for our own local and global communities.

These online events are free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required.