COVID-19. Deadly fires. Devastating storms and floods. Record-breaking heatwaves. Our current era of crisis, driven in many ways by human-caused climate change, has led many to search for historical parallels that could help us better understand the complicated present. For this talk, historian and disaster studies specialist Cindy Ermus (Department of History, University of Texas at San Antonio) will reflect on her experience researching disease and disasters from the eighteenth century to today. With a focus on her two recent books, The Great Plague Scare of 1720 (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and Urban Disasters (Cambridge UP, 2023), she will reflect on the subject of historical crises and on some of the lessons they can offer as we confront a new age of disaster—one that continues to unfold and yield more questions than answers. 

Biography:

Cindy Ermus is Director of Medical Humanities and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She specializes in the history of medicine and the environment, especially disease epidemics and disasters, in eighteenth-century France and the Atlantic World. She has also published on digital history and the historical profession. She is the author of The Great Plague Scare of 1720: Disaster and Diplomacy in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (Cambridge University Press, 2023), and Urban Disasters (Cambridge UP, 2023). Her next book, co-authored with Claire Edington (UCSD), is a global history of epidemics. Beyond her research and teaching, she is co-founder and executive editor for the open-access, peer-reviewed publication Age of Revolutions (ageofrevolutions.com).

 

The event will be held online.  To register:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/712849751797?aff=oddtdtcreator