Course Description
Often discussions of pandemics focus on infectious diseases, public health outreach and communication, and perhaps even vaccine development and roll out. But pandemics are also like mirrors. They offer a reflection of both who we are and who we can be as a global community. What can they teach us about ourselves, our society, and even our world? This course will focus on the HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 pandemics as two (ongoing) events that have taught us about science and disease. But they have also brought a sharper focus on issues surrounding stigma, religion, communication, inequity, and politics. Drawing on these two pandemics, we will begin to ponder how they help explore our current context more deeply and shape our responses to future pandemics. What were our lessons learned? How might we carry them forward?

Course Learning Objectives

• Learn and understand the history and context of both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics.
• Demonstrate skill in critical thinking, writing, oral presentation, and group discussion.
• Analyze, synthesize, and evaluate scholarship on various topics related to both HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 (such as religion, inequality, communication, etc.)
• Demonstrate skill in various forms of science communication (tweet, infographic, briefing/presentation).
• Create public scholarship about pandemics.
• Present on a pandemic topic of your choice in one of four formats (tv show, conference, thanksgiving table, or congregation/community meeting).