IDST 124.001 – Triple-I: Pandemics: Ethics, Literatures, and Cultures*

Instructors: Rebecca Walker (PHIL and Social Medicine), Michele Rivkin-Fish (ANTH), and Jane Thrailkill (CMPL). PHIL TA: Meredith Sheeks. This course meets MWF 8:00 – 8:50 a.m. in HM 100.

*This course is scheduled and controlled by The Office of Undergraduate Curricula (OUC). Please direct all registration questions to the OUC’s First-Year Curriculum Specialist, Ben Haven.

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed life dramatically for millions of people. Yet its realities – social distancing, quarantine, protective masks, job loss, education disruption, anxiety, loneliness and death, have been part of life during pandemics and epidemics across time and global space. This course brings three specific lenses and sets of methods to bear on experiences of pandemics – those of literature, anthropology, and philosophy. Themes of care, resource inequalities, stigma, and knowledge production are highlighted.

This is a required First-Year Foundations course in the IDEAs in Action curriculum.

Corequisite: IDST 124L – Data Literacy Lab