ARTH 298 - Art and Epidemics

How have pandemics and epidemics shaped the world around us? How have artists engaged with, and responded to, these experiences? What can art teach us about crisis and community, about death and survival, and about how creative efforts can help support and care for a community during times of crisis? How are individual and communal health experiences shaped by factors such as gender, socio-economic status, and race? This course will focus on artistic responses (individual and community-based) to epidemics and other health crises that have occurred in the course of history, including how societies have understood prior pandemics and how artists helped make sense of these experiences. This course will also include acts of resistance and survival. For example, we will study the role of art in fighting and surviving illness, and in relation to grieving and healing.

Credits 4

Notes
From time to time, departments design a new course to be offered either on a one-time basis or an experimental basis before deciding whether to make it a regular part of the curriculum. First offered Fall 2024.

Area
Humanities

Division
Arts and Humanities

Compass Attributes
Humanities