Life and Death in Data: Plagues, Pestilence, and Pandemics

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The content of this elective ranges from epidemiology and microbiology to public health sciences, history and classical studies. This module will enable you to apply analytics strategies used across different disciplines in the sciences and humanities to understand and contextualize the abundance of data resulting from both the recent COVID 'infodemic' and past disease outbreaks; this will include historiographical approaches to interpreting historical sources, epidemiological analysis and inference, and genetic and evolutionary analyses. You will reflect on what can be learned from historical perspectives in addressing global public health crises today. You will have a chance to develop your statistical literacy and understanding of epidemiological metrics. Through interactive and interdisciplinary workshops and webinars, students will be led by lecturers and guest speakers in discussing past and present public health policies and interventions.