Epidemics and the Environment in the Pre-Modern World
This symposium will explore the wide array of environmental and institutional factors that influenced the way in which plague, in the broadest sense, and other epidemics originated and spread, as well as their intellectual, artistic, demographic and socio-economic consequences at a local and global scale throughout history from Antiquity to the 18th century. In an ever-increasing global world, infectious diseases have become an escalating challenge for our societies, as has tragically been demonstrated during the current COVID-19 crisis. It is thus unsurprising that debates about epidemics now feature conspicuously in all disciplines, from conventional narratives on the rise of Europe to the social and demographic impact of HIV, Ebola or SARS. The purpose of our symposium will be to examine how Pre-Modern societies coped with epidemics that presented similar challenges and upheavals, comparable to the ones we are currently experiencing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. What can the Pre-Modern past offer to better prepare us for our present and future?
This event is organized by the Pre-Modern Research Forum Group at the Center for the Humanities (CHAT) at Temple University and generously sponsored by CHAT, Global Studies, the departments of Anthropology, English, Greek and Roman Classics, FGIS, History, Spanish and Portuguese, Tyler School of Art & Architecture and the Delaware Valley Medieval Association.
This event is supported by the General Activity Fund.