CFP: From the Black Death to COVID-19: Airborne Diseases in History, Literature, and Culture

The virtual conference “From the Black Death to COVID-19: Airborne Diseases in History, Literature, and Culture,” organized as part of the FWF project “Air and Environmental Health in the (Post-)COVID-19 World,” invites researchers to submit an abstract for consideration. Submissions are due by April 1, 2022.

The aim of the conference is to highlight health and medical perspectives on airborne diseases and pandemics, particularly in relation to their historical representation in Anglophone and postcolonial cultural and literary narratives. Presentations will take an in-depth look at how these representations can help us better understand the complex nature of air in connection to epidemics and pandemics.

Topics of interest include Black death, Spanish flu, influenza, COVID-19 pandemic, disease and death, epidemics and war, vaccination, air pollution, and overall health and medical humanities perspectives on airborne disease. This conference will discuss the role of the humanities in addressing trapped life, social distancing, and the history of epidemics and pandemics.