Medicine, History and Society
From Cholera to COVID-19: A Global History of Epidemics
HSTCMP 410
Instructor: Dr. Aditya Ramesh
ar90@uw.edu
Mondays and Wednesdays: 830 – 1020
Office hours: Monday 1-2 PM; Tuesday 2-3PM, 104 Smith Hall
Figure 1 “A house burning party in Section IV”. Source: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.29318
INTRODUCTION
How do we look back from our contemporary moment to the history of pandemics and epidemics? Drawing from the contemporary experiences of COVID-19, this course looks back into the history of global pandemics and epidemics and enables you to understand how and why different empires and nation-states have responded to infectious disease outbreaks in different ways.
This course covers the global history of epidemics, starting from the global pandemic of Cholera in the nineteenth century across Asia, Africa, Europe, and America to the contemporary experiences of COVID-19 and Ebola. It brings together insights from history, medicine, public health, epidemiology, and geography. The course will aid students in understanding the wider and deeper social, economic, political, and cultural histories that lead to disease and mortality. Likewise, it will situate cures to disease within their social and political histories.
Students will investigate why some countries and communities are relatively free from epidemics while others continue to suffer from them. You will identify the larger structural factors that define epidemics, including the economy, trade, labour movements, gender and class. Students will gain an appreciation for the nuanced ways in which disease is often created and amplified by global inequality and poverty. ‘Cholera to COVID-19’ explores the above through a historical framework and a global approach.
COURSE OUTCOMES: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
- With the recent experiences of the Coronavirus outbreak in mind, students will learn how historically infectious diseases have spread across the world, how people, health systems and governments have reacted to these and what lessons can be learnt from global pandemics in the past.
- The course unravels the global history of epidemics, starting from the global pandemic of Cholera in the nineteenth century across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America to the contemporary experiences of COVID-19 and Ebola. It brings together insights from history, medicine, public health, bacteriology, and quarantine. However, it further makes a clear case for why the historical method and analysing archives is important to understand how disease as a social phenomenon works.
- You will investigate why, in the contemporary world, some countries and communities are relatively free from epidemics while others continue to suffer from them. You will identify the larger structural factors, such as the economy, trade, labour movements, gender and class that lead to epidemics and see that disease is often caused by global inequality.
LECTURE, READING, LISTENING, AND WATCHING
- We meet twice a week. Usually each meeting will include a lecture of 40-50 minutes and a discussion/activity of 40-50 minutes. There will be weeks where will read together (especially primary sources), prepare for and discuss assessments, watch a film, or do an activity together in the second half of the meeting.
- There is no required textbook for this course. However, you may find the following books useful, and you can find them in the library.
- Paul Farmer, Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues (University of California Press [revised edition] 2001)
- Abena Osseo-Asare, Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa (University of Chicago Press 2014)
- Megan Vaughn, Curing Their Ills Colonial Power and African Illness (Polity Press 2013)
- Pratik Chakrabarti, Bacteriology in British India (Boydell and Brewer 2012)
- Every week, please read at least two of the articles that are under required reading. I will explain exactly what this means in the lecture. The additional reading is only for the exam questions that you might choose.
- In addition please listen to the accompanying podcast or watch the suggested film. If there are any accessibility issues, please contact me, and we will work out an alternative.
- In several weeks there are texts marked ‘primary sources’. Primary sources indicate texts produced at the contemporary moment of study. You can read these in advance, but we will work with several of these in the classroom, so don’t worry too much about them!
ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
Attendance/participation (15% of total grade): Participation is expected, including attending lectures and participating in seminar discussion. However, you might have mitigating circumstances which you can always discuss with me, or through various student support initiatives at the University of Washington. Different support systems will relay the information to me with as little detail as possible if you so wish. The earlier you discuss any issue you might have with me, the sooner we can find a solution.
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Exemplary (90%- 100%) |
Proficient (80%-90%) |
Developing (70%-80%) |
Unacceptable (>70%) |
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Frequency of participation in class |
Student initiates contributions more than once in each class. |
Student initiates contribution once in each class. |
Student initiates contribution at least in half of the class |
Student does not initiate contribution & needs instructor to solicit input. |
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Quality of comments |
Comments always respectful, insightful & constructive; uses appropriate terminology. Comments balanced between general impressions, opinions & specific, thoughtful criticisms or contributions. |
Comments mostly respectful, insightful & constructive; mostly uses appropriate terminology. Occasionally comments are too general or not relevant to the discussion. |
Comments are sometimes respectful, constructive, with occasional signs of insight. Student does not use appropriate terminology; comments not always relevant to the discussion. |
Comments are disrespectful or uninformative, lacking in appropriate terminology. Heavy reliance on opinion & personal taste, e.g., “I love it”, “I hate it”, “It’s bad” etc. |
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Listening Skills |
Student listens attentively when others present materials, perspectives, as indicated by comments that build on others’ remarks, i.e., student hears what others say & contributes to the dialogue. |
Student is mostly attentive when others present ideas, materials, as indicated by comments that reflect & build on others’ remarks. Occasionally needs encouragement or reminder from instructor of focus of comment. |
Student is often inattentive and needs reminder of focus of class. Occasionally makes disruptive comments while others are speaking |
Does not listen to others; regularly talks while others speak or does not pay attention while others speak; detracts from discussion; sleeps, etc. |
Short reflections x 2 (20% of total grade): These are due after week 3 and week 5. You are expected to explain and reflect on three concepts that you engaged with during the week. Subsequently, ask yourself why the week’s learnings are relevant to our contemporary moment. Think of the assessment as a total of four points you are attempting to make. Your reflection can take the form of 1. a write up (no more than 2 pages) 2. a photo-essay (no more than 4 photographs with explanations) 3. a podcast-style recording (no more than 6 minutes) 4. a mind-map for each concept, and one for contemporary relevance. An example will be up on Canvas, and we will talk through this assignment in the lectures and seminars.You can use the same format twice.
Documentary film review (15% of total grade): through the course, we will watch a series of documentaries and feature films. We will watch some of it in the classroom, and you are expected to watch the rest of it at home. In the classroom we will discuss some core ideas from the films/documentaries. Due at the end of week 7 is a film review. You are expected to evaluate a film and its usefulness to the researcher. Make sure you include 1) context (when was the film made, who made it and why?) 2) main themes it addresses 3) kinds of resources the film uses and why it might serve as a good (or not) source for research. Links to the films will be in a separate folder marked ‘Film Links’ on Canvas.
Archive/database review (10% of total grade): On canvas you will find several online archives and repositories listed. We will discuss the assignment in detail in the classroom. You will be expected to conduct a review of any one of them in week 4. A review comprises of at least 1) what are the kinds of materials the repository holds? [do not list, rather frame as a paragraph] 2) what are the questions we can ask using the materials in the repository? 3) what other kinds of archival material would it require to make it more complete, and answer your questions in a fuller fashion?
Final take home exam (40% of total grade): you will have a list of 6 questions, of which you must answer any two.
The following grading scale will be used:
Percent = Grade
95 = 4.0 88 = 3.3 81 = 2.6 74 = 1.9 67 = 1.2
94 = 3.9 87 = 3.2 80 = 2.5 73 = 1.8 66 = 1.1
93 = 3.8 86 = 3.1 79 = 2.4 72 = 1.7 65 = 1.0
92 = 3.7 85 = 3.0 78 = 2.3 71 = 1.6 64 = 0.9
91 = 3.6 84 = 2.9 77 = 2.2 70 = 1.5 63 = 0.8
90 = 3.5 83 = 2.8 76 = 2.1 69 = 1.4 60-62 = 0.7
89 = 3.4 82 = 2.7 75 = 2.0 68 = 1.3 <60 = 0.0
WEEK 1 Lecture: Introduction, COVID-19 and the History of Pandemics
In in the first session we will explore if COVID-19, which has brought about such unprecedented changes in our lives, has any historical precedence. In the middle of such a raging pandemic, everything appears unprecedented and extraordinary. Every mode of prevention seems to require efforts at a scale never faced before by the human race. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about unique challenges for governments and public health authorities across the world. It has also provided government’s with exceptional legal and judicial powers to restrict and control people’s lives and livelihoods. While the virus may be new, the modes of its control and prevention are not. COVID-19 is a new virus, but not the modes of its control and prevention. Although the lockdown and the restrictions on public life globally appear unprecedented, they reproduce measures that imperial and colonial governments and public health officials had used to segregate, isolate, and confine people during epidemics.
Seminar: Does COVID-19 have a history?
Required reading
To explore the question whether COVID-19 has any historical precedence we will read a few short essays on the topic. Some suggesting that it is unprecedented and others that it has precedence. At the very least please read the first two.
Guillaume Lachenal and Gaëtan Thomas, COVID-19: When history has no lessons
Dora Vargha and Jeremy A. Green, How Epidemics End - Boston Review
Additional reading
Chakrabarti, Pratik, Covid-19 and the Spectres of Colonialism
Peckham, Robert. “COVID-19 and the Anti-Lessons of History.” The Lancet (British edition) 395, no. 10227 (March 14, 2020): 850–852
Further reading
Special Issue of Centaurus, Vol. 62, no. 2, ‘Histories of Epidemics in the Time of COVID-19’.
WEEK 2 Lecture: A Global History of a Pandemic: Asiatic Cholera
This week we will begin with the series of Cholera pandemics, which affected global populations across the world rapidly in the nineteenth century. We will explore the parallels it had with COVID-19, we will also investigate how social and economic inequalities accentuated the outbreaks. Finally, we will explore why cholera continues to affect several parts of the world even today.
Seminar: Cholera and Globalization
Seminar question: What causes Cholera? Germs, poverty, or global trade and interaction?
Required reading
Hamlin, Christopher. "The Cholera Stigma and the Challenge of Interdisciplinary Epistemology: From Bengal to Haiti." Science as Culture 21.4 (2012): 445-74.
Mark Harrison, “A Dreadful Scourge: Cholera in early nineteenth-century India,” Modern Asian Studies 54:2 (2020)
Further reading
Smith, George Davey. "Commentary: Behind the Broad Street Pump: Aetiology, Epidemiology and Prevention of Cholera in Mid-19th Century Britain." International Journal of Epidemiology 31.5 (2002): 920-32.
Anne Hardy, ‘Cholera, Quarantine and the English Preventive System’, Medical History, 1993: pp. 250-269
Gilbert, E.W., ‘Pioneer Maps of Health and Disease in England’, The Geographical Journal, 124 (1958): 172-83
Charles Rosenberg, The cholera years; the United States in 1832, 1849 and 1866, Chicago, 1962, Introduction and part 1 ebook
Ackerknecht, E. "Anticontagionism between 1821 and 1867." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 22 (1948): 562-93
Gilbert, Pamela K. Cholera and Nation: Doctoring the Social Body in Victorian England. Albany, N.Y: State University of New York Press, 2008
Chakrabarti, Bacteriology in British India; Laboratory Medicine and the Tropics, (Rochester, NY, 2012) Chapter 5 [ebook]
Hamlin, Christopher, Cholera: The Biography, Oxford 2009, chapters 1 and 2
Briggs, ‘Cholera and Society in the Nineteenth Century’, Past & Present, 19 (1961): 76-96
Duffy, John ‘The History of Asiatic Cholera in the United States’, Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 47, 1971, pp. 115-1168.
Primary source
Spooner, E. O. "The Contagion of Asiatic Cholera." Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal (1844-1852) 13.2 (1849): 34-37.
WEEK 3 Lecture: The History of Quarantine
Drawing from the history of cholera in the nineteenth century and from our contemporary experiences of quarantine and lockdown, we will learn the history of quarantine this week; how it was established, the various international medical and economic debates associated with it and the human suffering associated with these. We will also try to understand if quarantine was effective in preventing pandemics.
Seminar: Quarantine and Imperial Trade
Seminar question: What defined the origin of the modern quarantine system? The threat of disease or imperial trade?
Required reading
Huber, Valesca ‘The Unification of the Globe by Disease? The International Sanitary Conferences on Cholera, 1851–1894’, The Historical Journal (2006), 49: 453-476
Maglen, Krista “‘The first line of Defence’, British Quarantine and the Port Sanitary Authorities in the Nineteenth Century’, Social History of Medicine, 15, 2002, pp. 413-428
Pouget, Benoît. “Quarantine, Cholera, and International Health Spaces: Reflections on 19th‐century European Sanitary Regulations in the Time of SARS‐CoV‐2.” Centaurus 62, no. 2 (May 2020): 302–310
Listening:
Anjuli Raza Kolb on pilgrims, empire and disease Episode 94 – Epidemic Empire and Colonialism with Anjuli Raza Kolb | Infectious Historians
Further reading
Mishra, Saurabh. Pilgrimage, Politics, and Pestilence: The Haj from the Indian Subcontinent, 1860-1920. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, chapter 3
Maglen, Krista. "Politics of Quarantine in the 19th Century." Journal of the American Medical Association 290:21 (2003): 2873
Mark Harrison, ‘Disease, diplomacy and international commerce: the origins of international sanitary regulation in the nineteenth century’, Journal of Global History, Volume 1 / Issue 02 / July 2006, pp 197-217
Ogawa, Mariko. ‘Uneasy Bedfellows: Science and Politics in the Refutation of Koch’s Bacterial Theory of Cholera’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 74 (2000): 671–707.
Primary source
Long, John G. "TURKEY. The Quarantine Camp at El Tor." Public Health Reports (1896-1970) 17.20 (1902): 1156-159
WEEK 4 Lecture: The Asymptomatic Carrier: Viruses, Parasites and Humans
This week we will focus on the idea of the asymptomatic carrier; i.e., a person who is infected by the virus or bacteria but shows no signs of it. The idea was first proposed in the early twentieth century and soon became associated with racial and gender prejudice and various methods adopted by governments and other associations to isolate and restrict the movement of people. We will study this particularly through the case of Mary Mallon an Irish immigrant who worked as a cook in New York.
Seminar: Germs and People
Seminar questions: Were modern public health measures of isolation and lockdown, which were based on Germ theory, intrusive or beneficial? What was the relationship between social marginalisation and germ theory?
(Film: The Most Dangerous Woman in America – additional material here NOVA | The Most Dangerous Woman in America | PBS])
Required reading
Leavitt, Judith W. ‘“Typhoid Mary” Strikes Back: Bacteriological Theory and Practice in Early Twentieth-Century Public Health’, Isis, 83, (1992), 608-629. (JSTOR)
Meade, Teresa ‘"Civilizing Rio de Janeiro": The Public Health Campaign and the Riot of 1904’, Journal of Social History, 20, (1986): 301-322
Jones, Esyllt W. “Co-operation in All Human Endeavour”: Quarantine and Immigrant Disease Vectors in the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic in Winnipeg, Canadian Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Volume 22:1 (2005) pp. 57-82.
Further reading
Chakabarti, P, Medicine and Empire, pp. 164-181, ‘Bacteriology and the Civilizing Mission’
Ilana Löwy, ‘Yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro and the Pasteur Institute Mission (1901-1905): the transfer of science to the periphery’, Medical History, 1990, 34: 144–163
Markel, Howard M., and Alexandra Minna Stern. "The Foreignness of Germs: The Persistent Association of Immigrants and Disease in American Society." Milbank Quarterly 80, no. 4 (2002): 757-88.
Kim Pelis, ‘Prophet for Profit in French North Africa: Charles Nicolle and Pasteur Institute of Tunis, 1903-1936’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine (BHM), 71, 4, 1997 ()
Moulin, Anne-Marie, ‘Patriarchal Science: The Network of the Overseas Pasteur Institutes’, in Patrick Petitjean, Catherine Jami and Moulin (eds.), Science and Empires; Historical Studies about Scientific Development and European Expansion (Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992), pp. 307-22.
Moulin, Anne-Marie,. ‘Tropical without Tropics: The turning point of Pastorian Medicine in North Africa’, in D. Arnold (ed). Warm Climates and Western Medicine, pp. 160-80.
Gradmann, Christoph, ‘Robert Koch and the Invention of the Carrier State: Tropical Medicine, Veterinary Infections and Epidemiology around 1900’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 41 (2010): 232-40.
Deepak Kumar, ‘Colony” under a Microscope: The Medical Works of W.M. Haffkine’, Science, Technology & Science, 4 (1999), 239-71
Mary Sutphen, ‘Not What, but Where: Bubonic Plague and the Reception of Germ Theories in Hong Kong and Calcutta, 1894–1897’, Journal of History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 52, 1, 1997, 81-113
Susan D Jones and Philip M Teigen, ‘Anthrax in Transit: Practical Experience and Intellectual Exchange’, Isis, 99, 2008, pp. 445-485.
WEEK 5 Lecture: Epidemiology and Bacteriology: From the Laboratory to Slavery and Colonialism
This week’s lectures examine some of the techniques which developed in the late 19th century to identify and prevent diseases. Epidemiology and bacteriology were two paradigm changing moments in medical and scientific history, when novel techniques were developed that helped curb diseases. We will cover the history of famous scientists such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. However, there is a more interesting and critical history here of how the lab is related to the wider social and political world. We will see how these techniques of bacteriology and epidemiology, which were so foundational to 19th and 20th century medicine, were shaped by diplomacy, empire, and finance.
Required reading
Pratik Chakrabarti, Bacteriology in British India (Boydell and Brewer 2013), pp. 1-24. Can be accessed UW Libraries Search - Pratik Chakrabarti bacteriology (exlibrisgroup.com)
Jacob Steere-Williams, The Filth Disease: Typhoid Fever and the Practices of Epidemiology in Victorian England (University of Rochester Press 2020), Introduction.
Required listening
Aro Velmet on Pastuer’s Empire Episode 87 – Pasteur’s Empire with Aro Velmet | Infectious Historians
Class Activity: Using disease maps
Coronavirus Outbreak Maps Rooted in History - Bloomberg
Additional reading:
Jacob Steere-Williams, The Filth Disease: Typhoid Fever and the Practices of Epidemiology in Victorian England (University of Rochester Press 2020)
Hellen Tilley, Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870-1950 (University of Chicago Press 2011)
Jim Downs, Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine (Harvard University Press 2021)
Palmer, Steve, ‘Beginnings of Cuban Bacteriology: Juan Santos Fernández, Medical Research and Scientific Sovereignty, 1880-1920," Hispanic American Historical Review 91:3 2011: 445-68.
Lukas Englemann, ‘A box, a trough and marbles: How the Reed-Frost epidemic theory shaped epidemiological reasoning in the 20th century’ HPLS 43:105 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-021-00445-z
WEEK 6 Lecture: In the Tracks of the Plague
We follow the third plague pandemic in its journey across port cities in the late 19th century. The plague was iconic for many reasons. It was the epidemic that introduced the science of urban planning and epidemic photography. Plague maps were the basis of 19th century epidemiology.
Required reading
Myron Echenberg (2002), ‘Pestis Redux: The Initial Years of the Third Bubonic Plague Pandemic, 1894-1901’, Journal of World History, 13(2), 429–449. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078978
Prashant Kidambi (2004), ‘”An infection of locality”: Plague, pythogenesis and the poor in Bombay, c. 1896–1905’ Urban History, 31(2), 249-267. doi:10.1017/S0963926804002135
Required listening
Emily Webster, Plague in Bombay and Urban Ecology Episode 67 – Plague in Bombay and Urban Ecology with Emily Webster | Infectious Historians
Primary source work
Exercise: carefully choose five images from the archive. Construct a visual narrative, an essay of sorts, that connects the images. What does each one of them say? How do they speak to one another?
Additional reading
Christos Lynteris, Visual Plague: The Emergence of Epidemic Photography (MIT Press 2022)
Paul Slack, Plague: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2021)
Green, M. et al., ‘Diagnosis of a ‘plague’ image: a digital cautionary tale’, The Medieval Globe 1.1 (2014) 309-26.
Green, M. et al., ‘Yersinia pestis and the three plague epidemics’, Lancet Infectious Diseases 14.10 (2014) 918.
Arlene Casey, Mike Bennett et. al. “Plague Dot Text: Text mining and annotation of outbreak reports of the Third Plague Pandemic (1894-1952),” Journal of data mining and digital humanities
William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples (New York: Penguin Books, 1976)
Lee Mordechai, Merle Eisenberg, “Rejecting Catastrophe: The Case of the Justinianic Plague,” Past & Present 244:1 (2019): 3–50
WEEK 7 Lecture: The Problem of Malaria
Some diseases are not pandemics, but epidemic and endemic. This means that they occur in certain placed regularly and affect large sections of populations. A good example of this is malaria, which is common in sub-Saharan Africa, and to a lesser extent South Asia. This week we will explore how malaria became ‘endemic’ to Africa, the human and non-human factors that led to its spread and why it has proved so difficult to eradicate malaria from Africa. Yet, while quintessentially bounded to the tropics, Malaria has even affected cities such as Boston and New York. The lectures will also seek to contextualize malaria in the paradigm of international health (think large organizations such as the League of Nations or the World Health Organization) which emerged during the interwar (1914-1945) era.
Seminar: Malaria and Development
Seminar questions: Why is malaria endemic to Africa? Is malaria natural to Africa or is it created by human action? How is ‘development’ linked to the problem of malaria in Africa?
Required reading
Eleanor Shaw, “Making Malaria History,” can be accessed at Nursing Clio Making Malaria History
Randall Packard, The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 1-18.
Additional reading
Packard, Randall M. "“Roll Back Malaria, Roll in Development”? Reassessing the Economic Burden of Malaria." Population and Development Review 35.1 (2009): 53-87
Packard, Randall M. ‘Maize, Cattle and Mosquitoes: the Political Economy of Malaria epidemics in colonial Swaziland’, The Journal of African History, 25 (1984): 189-212
Packard, Randall, ‘“Malaria Blocks Development” Revisited: The Role of Disease in the History of Agricultural Development in the Eastern and Northern Transvaal Lowveld, 1890-1960’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 27 (2001): 591-612.
Gallup, J L, and J D Sachs. "The Economic Burden of Malaria." The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 64.1-2 Suppl (2001): 85-96
Lyons, Maryinez. ‘Sleeping Sickness in the History of Northwest Congo (Zaire), Canadian Journal of African Studies, 19 (1985): 627-633
Jeeves Alan H. ‘Migrant Workers and Epidemic Malaria on the South African Sugar Estates, 1906-1948 in Alan H. Jeeves and Jonathan Crush., (1997) White farms, black labor : the state of agrarian change in Southern Africa, 1910-50 pp. 114-136
Worboys, Michael, ‘The Emergence of Tropical Medicine: A Study in the Establishment of a Scientific Speciality’, in G. Lemaine et. al. (eds.), Perspectives on the Emergence of Scientific Disciplines, (The Hague and Paris, Mouton) 1976.
Randall Packard, ‘The making of a vector-borne disease, Ch 5 (pp. 111-149) in the book The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007)
Lyons, Maryinez. ‘Sleeping Sickness in the History of Northwest Congo (Zaire), Canadian Journal of African Studies, 19 (1985): 627-633 Chakrabarti, Pratik, Medicine and Empire, chapter 8 ‘Imperialism and Tropical Medicine’
Douglas M. Haynes, Imperial Medicine: Patrick Manson and the Conquest of Tropical Disease, 1844 1923, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2001
Charles Cameron, ‘An Address on Micro-Organisms and Disease’, British Medical Journal, 1084 (8 October 1881): 583–86
Münch, R. ‘Robert Koch’, Microbes and Infection, 5 (2003): 69-74.
Primary source
Ronald Ross, ‘The Progress of Tropical Medicine.’ Journal of the Royal African Society 4, no. 15 (1905): 271-89
Patrick Manson, ‘The Life-History of the Malaria Germ outside the Human Body’, BMJ, 1838 (21 March 1896): 712–17.
WEEK 8 Lecture: Smallpox and Strategies of Eradication
This week we will study smallpox, the only disease that was successfully ‘technically’ eradicated and declared as such by International and national health organizations. We will explore the history of smallpox, the devastating effect it had on populations throughout history. We will then study the Smallpox Eradication Programme (SEP) of the WHO in detail to understand efforts to eradicate smallpox and what significance that holds for the possible eradication of other diseases.
Seminar: Smallpox: The Story of Eradication
Seminar questions: Should vaccination be a matter of legislation? (Should it be legally enforced) How did the complex structure of the WHO facilitate the smallpox eradication campaign? Why was the surveillance-containment strategy key to the Eradication of Smallpox in Western Africa? Can the Smallpox model be adopted for the Eradication of Other Disease? If so, which for disease/s and how?
Required reading:
Colgrove, James. "Between Persuasion and Compulsion: Smallpox Control in Brooklyn and New York, 1894-1902." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 78, no. 2 (2004): 349-78, pp. 371-8
Bhattacharya, S. "The World Health Organization and Global Smallpox Eradication." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 62, no. 10 (2008): 909
Foege, William, J. Millar, and D. Henderson. "Smallpox Eradication in West and Central Africa," World Health Organization. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 76, no. 3 (1998): pp. 223-231
Additional reading:
S Bhattacharya and N Brimnes, eds, ‘Simultaneously global and local: Reassessing smallpox vaccination and its spread, 1789-1900’, collection of essays in Spring issue (no. 1) of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine 83 (2009)
Bhattacharya, Sanjoy. "International Health and the Limits of Its Global Influence: Bhutan and the Worldwide Smallpox Eradication Programme." Medical History, 57, no. 4 (2013): 461-86.
J Colgrove, ‘Between persuasion and compulsion’, pp 17-44 (Ch 1) in his State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America (University of California Press and Milbank Memorial Fund, 2006)
N Williams, ‘The implementation of compulsory health legislation: Infant smallpox vaccination in England and Wales, 1840-1890’, Journal of Historical Geography 20 (1994): 396-412
S Bhattacharya, M Harrison, and M Worboys, Fractured States: Smallpox, Public Health and Vaccination Policy in British India, 1800-1947 (Orient Longman, 2005)
N Durbach, Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853-1907 (Duke University Press, 2005)
D Brunton, ‘Smallpox inoculation and demographic trends in eighteenth-century Scotland’, Medical History 36 (1992): 403-429
S Gronim, ‘Imagining inoculation: Smallpox, the body and social relations of healing in the eighteenth century’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 80 (2006): 247-268
Primary source: Smallpox WHO history: http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/39485
WEEK 9 Lecture: AIDS, Ebola and the Return of the Plagues
Lecture: In the post Second World War era, international organizations and the medical fraternity at large believed that widespread epidemics were now eradicated. Modern medicine had triumphed. Vaccines, sanitary methods, and pills had eliminated large scale epidemic disease which had rendered life fragile in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. New epidemic outbreaks such as Ebola and AIDS fundamentally challenged this consensus. They also revealed new inequalities.
Seminar: What is Plaguing the Modern World?
Seminar question: With AIDS and Ebola, are we revisiting nineteenth-century paradigms of disease, or charting new territories?
Required reading
P Wald, ‘“The Columbus of AIDS”: The invention of “Patient Zero”’, Ch. 5 (pp 213-263) in Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative (Duke University Press, 2008)
C E Rosenberg, ‘What is an epidemic? AIDS in historical perspective’, Daedalus 118 (1989): 1-17
Required watching
Gregg Mitman, “In the Shadow of Ebola”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5z3Rb8YBC8
Additional reading
Mitman, Gregg. "Ebola in a Stew of Fear." The New England Journal of Medicine 371, no. 19 (2014): 1763-765
Bayer, Ronald and Oppenheimer, Gerald M. AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Berridge, V., & Strong, P. (1991). ‘AIDS and the relevance of history. Social History of Medicine, Social History of Medicine, 4(1), 129-38.
Berridge, Virginia. AIDS in the UK: The Making of Policy, 1981-1994. Oxford University Press, 1996.
WEEK 10 Jumping Species, Jumping Borders
No lecture (we will hold discussions on your final take home paper)
Drawing from the prior weeks, we will now study the outbreak of COVID-19. We will start by exploring the phenomenon of jumping species, from Mad cow disease to SARS and explore how these are products of modern globalization. We will then focus on two key themes of the outbreak; the modes of identification, tracing of asymptomatic carriers and the various modes of prevention that are being suggested. We will finally explore how the history of epidemics help us to understand the disease.
Seminar questions: Is COVID-19 something that many consider ‘unprecedented’ or is it an outbreak that has both historical context and causality? Is the history of epidemics, contagion, and globalization useful in helping us understand the Covid-19 pandemic?
Is the phenomenon of Jumping species, as evident in Mad cow disease or SARS, a product of globalization?
Required reading
Blakeslee, Sandra. “Mad Cows, Sane Cats: Making Sense of the ‘Species Barrier.’” The New York Times. June 3, 2003
Kate Brown, ‘The Pandemic Is Not a Natural Disaster’, New York Times, 13 April 2020
Additional reading
Mark Harrison, "Disease and Globalization." Contagion, 247-75, Yale University Press, 2012.
Graham, Barney S. “Rapid COVID-19 Vaccine Development.” Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 368, no. 6494 (May 29, 2020): 945–
Lv, Huibin, Nicholas C Wu, and Chris K. P Mok. “COVID‐19 Vaccines: Knowing the Unknown.” European journal of immunology 50, no. 7 (July 2020): 939–943
Coronavirus Research Database. Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest LLC, 2020.
Special Issue of Centaurus, Vol. 62, no. 2, ‘Histories of Epidemics in the Time of COVID-19’.
Lango, Miriam N. “How Did We Get Here? Short History of COVID‐19 and Other Coronavirus‐related Epidemics.” Head & neck 42, no. 7 (July 2020): 1535–1538
Coronavirus Research Database. Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest LLC, 2020.
Wu, Yi-Chi, Ching-Sung Chen, and Yu-Jiun Chan. “The Outbreak of COVID-19: An Overview.” Journal of the Chinese Medical Association 83, no. 3 (March 2020): 217–220
Ahmed, Faheem, Na’eem Ahmed, Christopher Pissarides, and Joseph Stiglitz. “Why Inequality Could Spread COVID-19.” The Lancet. Public health 5, no. 5 (May 2020): e240–e240
Tai, Don Bambino Geno, Aditya Shah, Chyke A Doubeni, Irene G Sia, and Mark L Wieland. “The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the United States.” Clinical infectious diseases (June 20, 2020)
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Faculty mailboxes are located in 318 Smith. T.A. mailboxes are located in Smith 315, but these boxes are not secure and are only available when the office is open, M – F, 8:30 – noon, 1 – 5. Papers, notes, etc. for T.A.s should instead be delivered to T.A. offices or given to T.A.s after class. |
Covid-19 Expectations and Recommendations
- FAQ for students on Covid: https://www.washington.edu/coronavirus/student-faq/
- Guidelines for Covid flowchart: https://www.ehs.washington.edu/resource/covid-19-public-health-flowchart-updated-61223-1175
Student Resources in Times of Need
We understand that with student life and possible health issues, there are emotional stresses and strains. We have compiled a list of helpful resources, and we encourage you to reach out to our advisers, to your instructors, and to your peers for additional support. https://history.washington.edu/student-resources-times-need
Plagiarism & Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct, such as unauthorized collaboration, cheating on exams, and plagiarism, is prohibited at UW and may result in disciplinary action. Here is more information.
Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct at UW. It is defined as the use of creations, ideas, or words of publicly available work without formally acknowledging the author or source through appropriate use of quotation marks, references, and the like. Along with the University of Washington, the Department of History takes plagiarism very seriously. Plagiarism may lead to disciplinary action by the University against the student who submitted the work. Any student who is uncertain whether their use of the work of others constitutes plagiarism should consult the course instructor for guidance before submitting coursework. Disciplinary action on your school record can affect admission to graduate or professional schools.
The unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI) can be a form of academic misconduct at UW. Tools that use AI and large language models to generate text or images, such as ChatGPT, GPT4, Bing Chat, and "Write with AI" in Google Docs (the "help me write" feature now in beta testing in Workspace Labs), are usually prohibited by instructors in Department of History courses. Unless your instructor has expressly permitted the use of such tools, check with your instructor before using them. The unauthorized use of such tools may constitute academic misconduct and could result in serious disciplinary action.
Incompletes
An incomplete is considered only when the student has been in attendance and has done satisfactory work until within two weeks of the end of the quarter and has furnished proof satisfactory to the instructor that the work cannot be completed because of illness or other circumstances beyond the student's control.
Grading Procedures
Except in case of error, no instructor may change a grade that they have turned in to the Registrar. Grades cannot be changed after a degree has been granted.
Grade Appeal Procedure
A student who believes they have been improperly graded must first discuss the matter with the instructor. If the student is not satisfied with the instructor's explanation, the student, no later than ten days after their discussion with the instructor, may submit a written appeal to the Chair of the Department of History with a copy of the appeal also sent to the instructor. Within 10 calendar days, the Chair consults with the instructor to ensure that the evaluation of the student's performance has not been arbitrary or capricious. Should the Chair believe the instructor's conduct to be arbitrary or capricious and the instructor declines to revise the grade, the Chair, with the approval of the voting members of their faculty, shall appoint an appropriate member, or members, of the faculty of the Department of History to evaluate the performance of the student and assign a grade. The Dean and Provost should be informed of this action. Once a student submits a written appeal, this document and all subsequent actions on this appeal are recorded in written form for deposit in a Department of History file.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is defined as the use of one’s authority or power, either explicitly or implicitly, to coerce another into
unwanted sexual relations or to punish another for their refusal to engage in sexual acts. It is also defined as the creation by a member of the University community of an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or educational environment through verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
If you are being harassed, seek help—the earlier the better. You may speak with your instructor, your teaching assistant, History Undergraduate Advising, the Department’s Director of Academic Services (Smith 315A) or the Chair of the Department (Smith 308). In addition, the Office of the Ombud (206 543-6028) is a University resource for all students, faculty and staff. Community Standards and Student Conduct Office (cssc@uw.edu) is a resource for students.
Equal Opportunity
The University of Washington reaffirms its policy of equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, citizenship, sexual orientation, age, marital status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, or status as a protected veteran. This policy applies to all programs and facilities, including, but not limited to, admissions, educational programs, employment, and patient and hospital services. An discriminatory action can be a cause for disciplinary action.
Religious Accommodations
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
Access and Accommodations
Your experience in this class is important to us. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to us at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.
If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.
Department of History Diversity Committee
The Department of History Diversity Committee initiates and facilitates an ongoing conversation about diversity, proposes measures to address institutional disparities, and also serves as a confidential resource for students, staff, and faculty who have concerns related to climate and diversity. Any member of the department's learning and working community may contact the committee with concerns and questions. https://history.washington.edu/diversity-resources
Standards of Conduct and Academic Integrity: (see WAC 478-121-020)
The following abilities and behavioral expectations complement the UW Student Conduct Code. All students need to demonstrate the following behaviors and abilities:
Communication: All students must communicate effectively with other students, faculty, staff, and other professionals within the Department of History. Students must attempt to express ideas and feelings clearly and demonstrate a willingness and ability to give and receive feedback. All students must be able to reason, analyze, integrate, synthesize, and evaluate in the context of the class. Students must be able to evaluate and apply information and engage in critical thinking in the classroom and professional setting.
Behavioral/Emotional: Students must demonstrate the emotional maturity required for the adequate utilization of intellectual abilities, the exercise of sound judgment, and the timely completion of responsibilities in the class. Further, students must be able to maintain mature, sensitive, and effective relationships with students, faculty, staff, and other professionals while engaging in the class and within the Department of History. Students must have the emotional stability to function effectively in the classroom.
Students must be able and willing to examine and change behaviors when they interfere with productive individual or team
relationships.
Problematic behavior documented: Problematic behavior will be documented by the Department and if deemed appropriate forwarded on to Community Standards and Student Conduct. If a pattern of behavior or a single, serious lapse in the behavioral expectations becomes evident, the steps below will be followed so that the student is
apprised of a warning indicating that the student’s continuation in the class and/or major is in jeopardy. The student’s
instructor and/or appropriate program advisor or teaching assistant will document, either verbally or in writing, the concerning behavior and notify the student that they are receiving a warning. Notification of the warning will be forwarded on to the Chair of the Department and Student Conduct and Community Standards via email or in hard copy. The warning identifies what the concerning behavior was and that any further disruptions or concerning incidents will result in the student being asked to leave the class. When incidents occur that represent a significant impact to the program or its participants, students may be asked to leave immediately without prior warning.
Safety and Evacuation
Evacuation routes are posted throughout the building. In case of a fire, please evacuate and go to the evacuation assembly point, locations of which are posted on building walls. In case of a power outage or earthquake, please stay where you are and, for the latter, protect your head and neck. Students with disabilities which could impair evacuation should notify the instructor early in the quarter so accommodations can be made.
Concerns about a course, an instructor, or a teaching assistant
Instructors
If you have any concerns about the course or the instructor in charge of the course, please see the instructor about these concerns as soon as possible. If you are not comfortable talking with the instructor or not satisfied with the response that you receive, contact the Department of History’s Director of Academic Services, Tracy Maschman Morrissey, in Smith 315A. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive from Tracy, make an appointment with the Assistant to the Chair in Smith 308B to speak with the Chair.
TAs
If you have any concerns about the teaching assistant, please see them about these concerns as soon as possible. If you are not comfortable talking with the teaching assistant or not satisfied with the response that you receive, contact the instructor in charge of the course. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, you may follow the procedure previously outlined, or contact the Graduate School in G-1 Communications.
Rev. October, 2023