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HIST 093P. CASA: Global Pandemic

A key element in the history of medicine is how the same virus, plasmodium, or bacterium, as it travels across the globe, comes to take on particular meanings and affect people differently according to local conditions, cultures, and inequalities. This course is an opportunity to explore these dynamics in real time by bringing together researchers, community activists, and public health workers from across the Atlantic and giving students an opportunity to explore the social, cultural, economic, political and public health impacts of the current pandemic from the perspective of eight host sites (Paris, France; Bologna, Italy; Barcelona, Granada and Seville, Spain; Havana, Cuba; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and Dublin, Ireland).

Students will work with the corresponding site director at their respective study abroad site, as well as academic staff and local experts to examine the pandemic's outbreak history; progression of the disease over time and space; local, state and national responses; impact conditioned by race, class, gender, sexuality, age, nationality, immigration status and other forms and sources of social inequality.

The course is interdisciplinary regarding theory and methods. Students will gather and use a wide range of sources and resources, to include printed material (such as books and academic journal articles; newspaper and magazine articles; government and NGO reports), visual and audio materials (such as videos, photographs, art work and recorded performances; lectures, podcasts) as well as personal memories, stories, interviews and ethnographic fieldwork.
Social Sciences.
Catalog chapter: History  
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/history/

Access the class schedule to search for sections.

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