2021 Joan Palevsky Lecture in Classics | Plagues in Antiquity

The 2021 Annual Joan Palevsky Lecture will be a Departmental Roundtable Panel, featuring a discussion among members of the UCLA Classics Department of plagues in antiquity, including the plagues of 5th century Athens, Antonine Rome and Justinian. In addition to discussing medical, literary, historical, and archaeological sources, we will also consider the nature of the different ancient pathogens, the social disorder and disruptions to authority and truth caused by ancient pandemics, theories of causation, immunity, and treatment, as well as the problem of collecting and burying the dead. We hope that this discussion can shed light on many of the questions we have been wrestling with during the COVID pandemic. The Palevsky Lecture will be streamed as a webinar, followed by a VIP question and answer period. Click here to RSVP.