The Politics of Epidemics Syllabus

We are in the midst of a transformational pandemic. The novel coronavirus has directly affected our everyday lives, our hopes for the future, and the politics of the moment. In the midst of what was already a historic Presidential election, the novel coronavirus forces us to reevaluate the structure of our society economically, racially, scientifically, and institutionally. In this class we will explore the contemporary politics at stake in this pandemic, while also surveying previous pandemics and the political and community responses mounted to combat them. In doing so your final project for this class will be organized around using this information to produce public health policy for the city of Geneva, or your local community, in a political communications project, more detail below. This class will force you to think critically and creatively and you will leave this Maymester with a better understanding of the relationships between local, federal, and global politics, scientific research and politics, and how community and institutional responses shape the politics of biologic threats.