Yellow Fever in New Orleans with Urmi Engineer Willoughby

Episode 51 - March 7, 2021
Yellow Fever - book cover

Urmi Engineer Willoughby (Pitzer College) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss Yellow Fever, with a focus on New Orleans over the course of the 19th century. Urmi first talks about the biological, the environmental, and human factors that shaped the spread of Yellow Fever from Africa to the Americas across the last few centuries. She then moves on to discuss its particular importance in the city of New Orleans with its differential effects on inhabitants depending on race and class in particular. Finally, she talks about questions of immunized people who survived Yellow Fever along with the ways in which her work could be used in other times and places, including today during Covid.

Our Guest

Urmi Engineer Willoughby,

Assistant Professor, Pitzer College