From Cholera to COVID: New course melds past with present

September 09, 2021

A new course in history aims to help students better understand the present-day pandemic by examining major disease outbreaks in the past, and how epidemics change future behaviour.

It’s fueled by feedback Shelly McKellar, Professor in the Department of History, received for her Plagues, Pox and Flu course last year.

“I had students telling me the course helped them weed through all the doom scrolling they were doing during COVID and better understand what these events are, through a semblance of a larger context,” McKellar said. “It kind of warmed my heart, even though I always give them a disclaimer that talking about past pandemics is totally different than living through a current one.”

It also brought questions McKellar hopes to address more fully in her new half-course, From Cholera to COVID: How Epidemics Change the Way We Live.

Read the full story by Keri Ferguson on Western News.