ENV 495-01 - Senior Seminar

4 credits (Spring)

Throughout history and prehistory, infectious diseases have determined the fates of cultures and of nations more than any army or political thrall ever could. The seminar will examine the fundamental pathogenesis, etiology and epidemiology of infectious diseases, human, plant and animal. It will also examine the geopolitical and social changes those diseases have wrought on human demography, history, economy and destiny, from the spread of rodent-vectored plague westward along the Silk Road, to the decimation of New World populations by smallpox after their conquest by Europeans, to modern-day depredations caused by malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, to the emergence of COVID-19, among others.

Prerequisite: Open to Junior and Senior Environmental Studies Concentrators
Instructor: Campbell