Plagues and Pandemics |Behind the Headlines Online Discussion
Thursday, 26 March 2020, 7:30 – 9pm 
As Coronavirus pervades homes, societies and minds, our online Behind the Headlines discussion will ask what we can learn from pandemics and plagues of the past, in addressing a global public health crisis today.
With Governments the world over taking extraordinary emergency measures to curb the spread and impact of this new virus, we seek to understand what might be learned from past occurrences of plagues and pandemics as we approach Covid-19 today. Bringing together our customary multi-disciplinary panel, we will discuss the Black Death, the 1918 ‘Spanish’ flu, ethics and epidemics, immunology and the work currently underway by scientists, public health officials, individuals and society as a whole to tackle this pandemic.
Numbers for the interactive online discussion are limited, if you are not able to register you can still watch the discussion live on our Facebook page here.
About the speakers
Dr Ida Milne is a lecturer in European History at Carlow College, and a Visiting Fellow at Trinity’s School of Histories and Humanities. Her primary research interest is in the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, which killed more than 50 million people globally, and more than 23,000 in Ireland.
Dr Brendan O'Connell is Assistant Professor in Middle English Literature at Trinity’s School of English. He is currently teaching on medieval literary responses to the Black Death focusing on a number of texts that implicitly respond to the Black Death.
Professor Luke O’Neill (Chair of Biochemistry) is an Immunologist at Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology. An avid public commentator on all things science, his recent contributions to media and public debate have focused around measures to tackle the spread of Covid-19 in Ireland.
Dr Jacob Erickson is an Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at Trinity’s School of Religion. A frequent contributor to debates on Environmental Ethics, Queer Theologies and LGBTIQ Ethics, his current works sees him writing about theology in times of plague.
The Trinity Long Room Hub Behind the Headlines series is supported by the John Pollard Foundation.
Campus Location: Online
Accessibility: N/A
Room: Online webinar
Research Theme: Digital Humanities, Identities in Transformation
Event Category: Alumni, Conferences, Courses, Healthy Trinity, Key dates, Lectures and Seminars, Library, Public
Type of Event: One-time event
Audience: Undergrad, Postgrad, Alumni, Faculty & Staff, Public
Cost: Free but Registration Required
More info: zoom.us…
