Epidemics and the Environment in the Pre-Modern World
Temple University
Friday, September 30, 9:00 am-6:30 pm

Webinar Registration Link https://temple.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sIp1vOwQStep7H0czB49lg 

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. How did Pre-Modern societies cope with epidemics that presented 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?

 Schedule

9:00-9:10 Introduction

9:00AM-12:00 PM. SESSION I

9:10-9:50 Hunter Gardner, Professor of Classics, University of South Carolina

“Social Distancing, Roman Style: Contact, Contagion, and Isolation in Latin Plague Narratives”

9:50-10:30 Winston Black, Gatto Chair of Christian Studies, St. Francis Xavier University “Before the Mask: Air Purification and PPE in the Second Plague Pandemic”

10:30-11:10 Susan Einbinder, Professor of Hebrew & Judaic Studies, University of Connecticut “Jews, Rats, and Plague”

11:10-11:50 Elizabeth Duntemann, PhD Candidate Tyler School of Art &Architecture, Temple “Framing Early Modern ‘Syphilis’ in Art and Architectural History: Chronic Infirmity and Healing in the Ambit of the Ospedali degli Incurabili Network in Naples”

12:00 PM-1:00 PM. BREAK

1:00 PM-3:00 PM. SESSION II

1:00-1:40 Stephen Dueppen, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon “Redefining local communities and regional connections in West Africa after the Black Death Pandemic”

1:40-2:20 W. George Lovell, FRSC, Professor of Geography, Queen's University, Canada and Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain

"Pandemic Precedent: Amerindian Demise in the Wake of Columbus"

2:20-3:00 Lori Jones, Professor of Medical History, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, Canada.

“`Turkey is Almost a Perpetual Seminary of the Plague’: Relocating Pathogenic Plague Environments”

3:00 PM-3:30 PM. BREAK

3:30 PM-5:00 PM. SESSION III

3:30-4:10 Kristy Wilson Bowers, Professor of History, University of Missouri “Ordinary or Dangerous Pestilence? Epidemics in Early Modern Spain”

4:10-4:50 Gwen Robbins Schug, Professor of Biology, University of North Carolina- Greensboro

“There will Come Soft Rains: Lessons from Epidemic Diseases and Changing Environments of the Past”

4:50-5:30 Rita Krueger, Professor of History, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University “Outbreak in the City: Smallpox in 18th Century Vienna”

5:30 PM-6:30 PM Response and Q &A

Respondent:

Sharon DeWitte, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of South Carolina

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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, and the departments of Anthropology, English, Greek and Roman Classics, FGIS, History, Philosophy, Geography and Urban Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, Tyler School of Art & Architecture and the Delaware Valley Medieval Association.

THIS SYMPOSIUM IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC