Notes from the Field

Teaching the history of epidemics remains a critical mission of our profession, both inside and outside of the classroom. Charles E. Rosenberg's "dramaturgical model" of epidemic response endures as a useful and flexible heuristic. Through guided discussion of the dramaturgical model, students can develop a shared vocabulary and a working theory of epidemic responses through time. Students can apply the model, then revise and refine it for themselves through writing assignments and careful comparisons of epidemics in different times, places, and populations. Special consideration must be given to teaching the history of epidemics during the present SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Disease · Field (mathematics) · Heuristic · Infectious disease (medical specialty) · Linguistics · Outbreak · Pandemic · Pathology · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) · Sociology · Vocabulary · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Historical and modern epidemiology studies · History · Mathematics · Medicine · Philosophy · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research · Virology