INTL 276 - Global Contagions, Past and Present

Despite Covid-19’s sudden 2020 appearance, global contagions are far from new. Exploring the vast history, literature, and science of 14th to 21st century pandemics can inform, frame, and indeed calm our current experiences. The course starts with “Pandemics 101,” reads widely in history and social inquiry, and tackles major literary accounts of past plagues by Camus, Defoe, and in the 2011 Hollywood thriller “Contagion.” Throughout, we attend keenly to how, and from whose perspectives, pandemics are told. We will also engage our recent and current experiences, researching and narrating today’s coronavirus impacts in comparative and historical perspective. Prerequisite: some experience with a widespread pandemic. Alternate years. (4 Credits)