MED 117 — The Epidemics That Changed Us: Disease, Society, and the Lessons of History
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Lucy Tompkins, Julie Parsonnet
Date(s): Jan 7—Feb 25
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—7:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $455
Refund Deadline: Jan 9
Unit(s): 1
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Winter
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 8 weeks
Time: 5:30—7:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 7—Feb 25
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $455
Refund Deadline: Jan 9
Instructor(s): Lucy Tompkins, Julie Parsonnet
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
Throughout history, epidemics have reshaped civilizations as profoundly as wars and revolutions. They have toppled governments, transformed economies, and forced societies to confront enduring questions about freedom, trust, and collective action. Through history's most consequential epidemics, from plague and smallpox to HIV/AIDS and Covid, we'll explore how disease has repeatedly reshaped society. Using each outbreak as a case study, we'll examine both the biology of disease and the human responses it provoked. Why do some communities embrace scientific and public health advances while others resist them? How have epidemics fueled fear and political conflict? How can societies protect public health while respecting personal beliefs and cultural tradition? Drawing on epidemiology, medicine, and public policy, we'll trace the patterns that link centuries of outbreaks, revealing why understanding the past is essential to navigating the public health challenges of the future.
Students who have previously taken MED 32: "Pandemics and Human History" are welcome; two lectures revisit earlier topics from new perspectives, but the remaining six are new.
LUCY TOMPKINS
Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine, Emerita (Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine), Stanford Medicine
Lucy Tompkins’s research encompasses both laboratory-based bacterial pathogenesis and the molecular epidemiology of infectious disease outbreaks. Over her career, she has held multiple national leadership positions and editorships. At Stanford, she served as director of clinical microbiology, hospital epidemiologist, medical director of the Infection Prevention and Control Department at Stanford Health Care, division chief, and associate dean for faculty affairs, among other roles. JULIE PARSONNET
George DeForest Barnett Professor of Medicine, Emerita, and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford Medicine
Julie Parsonnet's research focuses on the role of infections in chronic disease. She studies the effects of climate change on the incidence of infections in California and the uses of wastewater for surveillance of infectious diseases. Before Stanford, she was an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer with the CDC. She teaches about infectious diseases epidemiology, outbreak investigation, and pandemics in world history. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Textbooks for this course:
(Optional) Mitchell Hammond, Epidemics and the Modern World (ISBN 978-1487593735)
(Optional) Frank M. Snowden, Epidemics and Society (ISBN 978-0300256390)
(Optional) Frank M. Snowden, Epidemics and Society (ISBN 978-0300256390)