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The History of Pandemics and Impact on Society – LESSONS FROM MEDIEVAL PANDEMICS

How have pandemics impacted our society? How do we understand pandemics and study them?

The emergence of COVID-19 brings the world to its latest historic moment at the hands of an invisible enemy. In this revealing series, Marquette faculty explore the intersection of humans and disease and how that dynamic has transformed the way people live, work and coexist. By examining historic pandemics and what has been learned over hundreds of years about the link between disease and the human experience, faculty throughout the series will offer new perspectives that prompt us all to reflect on the current circumstances – the 2020 pandemic that has fundamentally changed human existence throughout the world.

RECORDED ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2020

Presented by Dr. Lezlie Knox, Department Chair, History & Associate Professor, Marquette University Klingler College of Arts and Sciences

In our first webinar of the series, go back in time and examine how the Justinianic Plague and the Black Death transformed peoples’ lives, and learn how new work in climate science and genomics is changing our understanding of the plague and its impact on society.

Dr. Lezlie Knox is associate professor of History and chair of the department. Her research focuses on the social and cultural dimensions of religious movements in later medieval Italy. She has published two books on women affiliated with the Franciscan Order, and she also has a particular interest in historical pandemics and how new research in ancient DNA and paleoclimates impacts our understanding of the persistence of plague.