Infectious Historians

Robert Alpert (Fordham University) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss the book they wrote together on disease in film. The conversation begins with a survey of the book and its argument. The three co-authors speak about the movies that are covered in the book, reflect upon the experience of co-writing a book (a

Michelle Smirnova (University of Missouri-Kansas City) returns to the podcast to discuss her new book on drugs and prison in the United States, The Prescription to Prison Pipeline.The interview begins with a discussion of medicalization, and then generally follows the title of her book. The first part focuses on prescr

Ana Duggan (McMaster) and Tim Newfield (Georgetown) join the Infectious Historians to discuss smallpox. The conversation begins as always with a survey of what smallpox actually is as well as its broad history. After Ana and Tim share the reasons they chose to research smallpox, they move on to speak about recent resea

Karen Cook (University of Hartford) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss some of her work on medieval music. Karen begins with an overview of medieval music - its purposes, context, instruments and the people who made it. She then moves on to speak about music related to epidemics - which is generally identified

John Eicher (Penn State Altoona) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss his project on the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic that examines the pandemic from a translocal and comparative perspective. John begins by describing the broad contours of the pandemic and reflects upon the different approaches scholars have adop

Tylor Brand (Trinity College Dublin) comes on the podcast to talk about his recent book, Famine Worlds: Life at the Edge of Suffering in Lebanon’s Great War. After the standard opening and welcome, the discussion begins with a survey of the Ottoman Middle East in the early 20th century, which quickly moves to examine t