HR230-6-AU-CO:
Pandemics: Lessons from History
2021/22
History
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 6
ReassessmentOnly
Thursday 07 October 2021
Friday 17 December 2021
15
24 February 2022
Requisites for this module
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Pandemics brutally remind us that we are subject to nature, vulnerable as a species to being suddenly subjected to forces we either do not control or fully understand. They summon forth a variety of responses: mystical and apocalyptic beliefs, persecutions (whether religious, ethnic or social), state interventions, community and neighbourly initiatives, applications (or misapplications) of existing bodies of knowledge (for example, science – both bad and good - and pseudoscience). All of these responses take different forms according to culture, society and period. This module explores and compares these responses in the period from 1500 to the present by focusing on the six great pandemics: bubonic plague (the so-called 'Black Death'), small pox, cholera, the Great Flu, HIV/AIDS and COVID-19. The module demonstrates that the pandemic, ultimately dependent upon the existence of the most basic life forms – bacteria – or an entity that is arguably not even a life form – the virus – helps us to understand societies, past and present, even as it ravages and transforms them.
To provide students with a complex, comparative understanding of how pandemics have shaped social experience and historical development; to introduce students to the variety of sources appropriate for the exploration of pandemics in a number of different periods and societies; to train students in the techniques and implications of comparative and contemporary history.
1. A broad and sophisticated knowledge of the place and significance of pandemics in history since 1500
2. Ability to analyse and employ complex sources relating to the study of pandemics and their impacts.
3. Ability to use the methods of comparative and contemporary history, including an understanding of their methodological implications.
For introductory reading, see:
Nancy Brisow, American Pandemic. The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic.
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel.
William McNeill, Plagues and Peoples.
Laura Spinney, Pale Rider. The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World.
World Health Organisation AIDS: Images of the Epidemic.
Hans Zinnser, Rats, Lice and History.
These will take the form of lectures and seminars, with some occasional showing of films.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
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Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Jeremy Krikler, email: krikjm@essex.ac.uk.
Belinda Waterman, Department of History, 01206 872313
No
No
No
Dr Simon Rofe
University of London
Reader in Diplomatic and International Studies
Available via Moodle
Of 1743 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
1743 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
History
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