Congratulations to Dr. Aditi Sen, who has received a Principal's Impact Course award for her proposed upper-year seminar course, "How Pandemics Shaped the History of the World."
The proposed course brings together global historical analyses on past pandemics, community engagement in the Kingston area, and experiential learning opportunities in local museums and archives, to weave an innovative and insightful understanding of the role the pandemics have played in shaping our contemporary society and our understanding of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). Drawing from the local history of long-term global processes shaped by past pandemics including the Black Death, smallpox, cholera, typhoid, malaria, polio, the Spanish flu, tuberculosis, and syphilis, the students will learn about the following historical themes: the history of the evolution of hospitals, sanitation movements, the rise of patent medicines and the opiates industry, the growth of tropical medicine, legal apparatuses on controlling poverty, attempts to solve childhood mortality, the story of politicizing nutrition, and the nuances of governmental control over bodies.
The Principal's Impact Courses initiative provides funds for the development of courses that enhance student learning for impact, foster inquiry-based learning, and strengthen local and global connections. They are part of a longer-term commitment to transform curricula by enhancing already-existing undergraduate courses or developing new courses with the purpose of engaging students in transformative educational processes that build capacity in responding to a dilemma, challenge, problem, issue, question. These experiences will ideally incorporate perspectives from different disciplines, sectors and approaches, and foster reciprocal and respectful relationships among students, faculty and/or community in which all partners benefit.
