Pandemic Disease in 20th cent

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Since the spring of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has dominated politics, society, culture, and economy in most parts of the world. While the situation is unprecedented in many ways, pandemics are, of course, not a new phenomenon per se. Since the late 1990s, in particular, the world has been under threat by seemingly never-ending waves of infectious diseases rolling over the planet. Or, to be more precise, the spread of diseases has given rise to a heightened *sense of threat*, particularly in the “Western” world. SARS, avian influenza, and swine flu have garnered a lot of political and public attention – as have the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014 and the appearance of the Zika virus in the tropics in 2015/16. Such fears are in stark contrast to the belief that humanity might possess the means to eliminate infectious disease altogether – an idea that first rose to prominence in the “golden age” of bacteriology in the late 19th century and resurfaced after the Second World War, animating massive (and failed) international efforts to “eradicate” malaria and (successful) initiatives to eliminate smallpox. Since the emergence of new infectious diseases such as Ebola in the 1970s and, in particular, HIV/AIDS in the 80s, such ambitions have given way to recurring fears of deadly pandemics. Experts have long warned that globalization facilitates the dissemination of pathogens, and it is certainly no coincidence that outbreak scenarios and apocalyptic visions of global pandemics endangering the very survival of humanity have been a staple in popular fiction. The course explores the ways in which large-scale epidemics or pandemics have influenced the political, social, and cultural history since the mid-nineteenth century. We focus both on individual countries and regions, especially in Europe and North America, as well as on infectious disease as a challenge for international cooperation and global governance. How have ideas and perceptions of health and disease changed over time? How have societies reacted to, perceived of, and culturally appropriated the threat of disease? What role have health experts and international organizations such as the World Health Organization played? And how can we contextualize the politics of global health within the history of international relations and global governance regimes? Finally, we will discuss the question of what, if anything can be learned from the history of pandemics – or more generally: to what extent we can “learn” from history and what lessons we should and should not draw from the past when trying to navigate the present and figure out a way to prepare for the future.