Pandemics in History, Literature, and Today

FAIN: ES-281292-21

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201)
Trish Starks (Project Director: March 2021 to March 2024)
Casey Kayser (Co Project Director: July 2021 to March 2024)

A two-week, residential institute for 36 middle and high-school educators that would provide comparative perspectives on the 1918 and 2020 global pandemics.

The institute “Pandemics in History, Literature, and Today” will delve into the global history of the 1918 influenza pandemic, discuss literature related to its cultural and personal impact, work with archival, primary source materials from front-line workers of 1918, and compare these historical, literary, and archival descriptions with histories being gathered of the 2020 pandemic. The program is organized by scholars from medical humanities, an interdisciplinary field devoted to the critical study of science and medicine and will demonstrate how medical content can be integrated into the study of twentieth century global history and literature. Participants will return to their middle, junior or high school classrooms with lesson plans that unite history, literature, rhetoric, and science, and they will become familiar with new approaches for building skills in source analysis, reasoning, and argumentation.