Event

COVID-19: Memory In and Of a (Public Health) Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic began in the recent past and continues to affect present life and future trajectories. Scholars live during this time with their own personal experiences, while also seeking to document, contextualize, analyze, and characterize this time through professional scholarship.  How do we as scholars come to understand, assess, and communicate recent and still-unfolding histories within which we ourselves continue to live – including, specifically, that of the COVID-19 pandemic? In sum, what are the kinds of aims, methods, sources, constraints, and possibilities of researching and teaching forms of emergent memory (such as COVID-19)?

For our second Theories of History, we’ll discuss theories on memory in and of a (public health) crisis. Whether it’s theories about disaster studies and the Anthropocene or examples and experiences in the history of medicine, we’ll talk about how to understand history and memory while living through crisis.

This challenge is not new or unique to COVID-19, but it is the one I am considering as I plan a seminar on memory in and of a crisis – specifically, a public health crisis. I unabashedly seek insights from across periods and fields of study on history, memory (personal and collective), crisis, illness, pandemics, public health, and personal entanglements with scholarship (self-reflexivity and such).

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Faculty and graduate student open-ended discussion group exploring major themes, topics, and puzzles in the history of science, technology, medicine, and the environment. Each month focuses on a different theme, with topics ranging from agency, biography, and the definition of science. This month will be hosted by Dr. Christine Muller, Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, History and Sociology of Science.

Please bring your own lunch and enjoy coffee and pastries from the History and Sociology of Science Department.