The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has raised public awareness of the vulnerabilities of modern societies, and the fundamental role of public health within. The optimism of global public health professionals after the successful eradication of smallpox by the 1980s has given way to much humbler and more differentiated views of the necessity to live and cope with zoonoses in particular. While Covid-19 and monkeypox, among others, have now led to the proclamation of a ‘new era of emerging infectious diseases,’ the persistence of Cholera, HIV, and Ebola, as well as the recent return of Polio, all highlight the interdependence of political and social affairs with cultural, environmental, urbanistic, and sanitary factors. By outlining the development of epidemiology from its classical roots and its modern foundations at the beginning of the 20th century to the present, this interdisciplinary Honors Seminar examines how contemporary societies are trying to cope with epidemics, both domestically and on a global scale.
- Teacher: Marcus Pyka