Lee

Merle and Lee reflect on the podcast’s past, present and future, Covid and teaching.

Helen Rhee (Westmont College) joins Merle and Lee to talk about her recent book on illness, pain and healthcare in the ancient world and early Christianity.

Jim Downs (Gettysburg College) discusses his recent book on how empire transformed medicine with Merle and Lee.

Maria Spyrou (University of Tübingen) and Phil Slavin (University of Stirling) join the Infectious Historians to discuss their recent important article on the source of the Black Death, as well as interdisciplinary work.

Adam Izdebski (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) joins Merle and Lee to discuss his work bridging the science/history gap by examining ancient pollen.

Jennifer Hughes joins the Infectious Historians to discuss her work on church and society in 16th century Mexico within the Spanish Empire while focusing on reactions to infectious disease.

Merle and Lee meet in person for the first time in two and a half years, and reflect on Covid, the podcast over the past year and its future directions.

Aro Velmet (USC Dornsife) joins Merle and Lee to discuss his work on the Institut Pasteur in the context of colonial France in the late 19th century. 

Keith Wailoo (Princeton University) joins the podcast to talk about his work on the role race and racialization play in the unfolding of pandemics.

Kaspar Staub (University of Zurich) joins the podcast to talk about his historical epidemiology work and how it provides helpful context for the ongoing Covid pandemic.

Susanne Hakenbeck (University of Cambridge) talks about the role of archaeology in understanding disease, pandemics, and climate change in the ancient and medieval periods.

Beatrix Hoffman (Northern Illinois University) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss the healthcare system in the United States and highlight the experience of immigrants in the country.

Jules Skotnes-Brown (University of St. Andrews) joins the podcast to discuss his work on the interface between humans, animals and the environment, particularly in the context of South Africa at the turn of the 20th century. 

Kirsten Ostherr (Rice University) joins Merle and Lee to discuss her translational humanities website – which gathers humanities projects that attempt to make a direct intervention during Covid.

Merle and Lee take a step back to reflect on disease studies based on their experiences in the past.

Todd Platts (Piedmont Virginia Community College) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss some of his work on zombie films as a form of disease movies. 

Miri Shefer Mossensohn comes on the podcast to talk about her work on Ottoman histories of medicine and disease.

Emily Webster (University of Chicago) talks about her work on plague outbreaks in Bombay at the turn of the 20th century and the importance of ecology to the study of disease.

Audra Wolfe discusses her work on scientific freedom and its impact on how we think about science from the Cold War to the present day.

Janet Kay (Princeton) returns to the podcast for her promised reflections on teaching a course on plagues and pandemics during the Spring 2021 semester with lessons learned and ideas for the future.

Abigail Dumes (University of Michigan) comes on the podcast to talk about Lyme Disease and how it has shaped clinical diagnoses and debates over long term symptoms

Meg Leja (SUNY Binghamton) joins the podcast to discuss her work on the history of medicine and disease during the Early Middle Ages.

Svenn-Erik Mamelund (OsloMet) comes on the podcast to talk about his research as a historical demographer, using one’s research to influence policy and conducting outreach.

Michael Vann (California State University, Sacramento) returns to the Infectious Historians podcast, this time to discuss Alexandre Yersin’s life from a critical perspective.

Merle and Lee celebrate one year of Infectious Historians by reflecting on the past year, Covid, and the podcast.

Jessica Wright (University of Sheffield) joins Merle and Lee to discuss her work linking ancient medicine and Christian heresy.

Khary Polk (Amherst College) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss his work about Black laborers in the US military and their perceived immunity to infectious diseases in the first half of the 20th century.

Stephanie Marciniak (Penn State University) discusses her work studying historical diseases through their ancient DNA.

Lukas Engelmann (University of Edinburgh) discusses his work on the history of epidemiology and epidemiological models with Merle and Lee.

Chinmay Tumbe (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad) discusses his new book, The Age of Pandemics, that focuses on the cholera, plague, and the 1918 Influenza pandemics in India.

Guy Beiner (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) discusses how people and societies have forgotten and remembered the 1918 Influenza Pandemic over the last century.

Susan Jones (University of Minnesota) discusses the key role of animals in the spread of diseases and the outbreak of epidemics, focusing on plague in Soviet Central Asia.

Katie Foss (Middle Tennessee State University) talks about her recent work on the role of the media in shaping how we think and remember epidemics in U.S. history.

Mary Brazelton (University of Cambridge) comes on the podcast to discuss vaccinations in China during the 20th century.

Jacob Steere-Williams (College of Charleston) talks to Lee and Merle about typhoid fever and the development of epidemiology as a field of study.

Elise Mitchell (NYU) talks about her work on smallpox vaccinations and forced inoculations for enslaved people in the Caribbean during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Michael Vann (California State University, Sacramento) joins Merle and Lee to talk about the rat hunt following a plague outbreak in colonial Vietnam.

Merle and Lee discuss the late antique Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750), their current topic of research.

Priscilla Wald (Duke University) comes on the podcast to discuss the outbreak narrative, a common way through which we understand infectious diseases.

Vincent Racaniello (Columbia University) joins Merle and Lee to discuss developments in the field of virology over the past few decades.

Jordan Pickett (U Georgia) comes on the podcast to discuss archaeology and potential signals of infectious diseases in archaeological finds.

Liat Kozma (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) discusses the development of medicine in the Middle East.

Robert Alpert (Fordham and Hunter College) discusses how pandemics are depicted in film, and what might we learn about the past from these films.

Chris De Wet joins Merle and Lee to discuss his work on using discourse analysis to better understand late antique disease through the eyes of the people who experienced them.

Chris De Wet joins Merle and Lee to discuss his work on using discourse analysis to better understand late antique disease through the eyes of the people who experienced them.

Christos Lynteris, a leading expert on the Third Plague Pandemic, discusses the Third Pandemic and its impacts during the 20th century.

Merle and Lee discuss the late antique Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750), their current topic of research.

Michelle Smirnova, a sociologist (University of Missouri, Kansas City), joins Merle and Lee to discuss some of the present-day effects of COVID-19 in the US.

Abigail Agresta joins the podcast to discuss the most infamous pandemic in history – the Black Death.

Merle and Lee discuss the late antique Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750), their current topic of research.

An introductory episode in which Merle and Lee discuss the podcast and introduce themselves.