Event: Seminar: 'Epidemic Alert Systems in Perspective - XIVth Century to COVID-19’
Date: Tuesday 16 April 2024
Time: 17:30
Venue: Tal-Ħarsun Farmhouse, Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, Msida Campus
The Mediterranean Institute is pleased to announce that the next speaker on the Mediterranean Institute Seminar Series is Patrice Bourdelais, one of the most eminent international voices in demographic history and contemporary Mediterranean scholarship.
Prof. Bourdelais's seminar is titled 'Epidemic Alert Systems in Perspective - XIVth Century to COVID-19’, and will take place on Tuesday 16 April at 17:30 at the Tal-Ħarsun Farmhouse, the Mediterranean Institute’s historic premises at the University of Malta’s Msida Campus.
The aim of the Seminar is to look at the ways in which alerts on major epidemics have evolved in our European history. Since the aftermath of the Second World War, the World Health Organisation has been responsible for declaring alerts and defining their importance, via the legal constraints of International Health Regulations.
Prof. Bourdelais proposes a retracing of the history of the long (and difficult) emergence of the first international health regulations in the nineteenth century. These were the result of numerous international conferences held in the second half of the nineteenth century at the instigation of the main countries of Western Europe.
Several questions will emerge in the process: what were the aims and resources of these international conferences? Did they result in the proposal of a regional strategy to limit the spread of epidemics (plague and cholera in particular)? On what basis? What were the levers of their policy? Could they have been achieved through a balanced relationship with the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean? Did the WHO change its strategy in order to limit the geographical spread of a major epidemic? Does it maintain a balanced relationship with the different countries of the world? If not, what could be the consequences?
Patrice Bourdelais is Prof. Emeritus at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. Amongst his publications are 'Epidemics laid low: A history of what happened in rich countries (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2006, translated by Bart K. Holland)', 'Les nouvelles pratiques de santé, objets, acteurs, pratiques sociales Belin', 2005,with Olivier Faure),' Les constructions de l’intolérable, La Découverte,' 2005, with Didier Fassin), 'Dynamics of Health and Welfare : texts and contexts', (Colibri, Lisbon, 2007, with Laurinda Abreu, Teresa Ortiz-Gomez and Guillermo Palacios), 'The price of Life: Welfare Systems, Social Nets and Economic Growth' (CIDEHUS, Lisbon, 2008, with Laurinda Abreu), and 'Vulnerability, Social Inequality and Health, (Colibri CIDEHUS-UE. Phoenix TN, Lisbon', 2010, with John Chircop).
The event will be introduced by Prof. Norbert Bugeja, Director of the Mediterranean Institute, and Prof. Bourdelais will be introduced by Prof. John Chircop, Chair of the Institute.
Entry to the Mediterranean Institute Seminar is free and open to the public. Students are especially encouraged to attend.
A Q&A session will follow on from the Seminar. Attendees are welcome to stay on for drinks and refreshments after the event.
For more information or to reserve a place, kindly contact Ms Isabelle Abela by email or MI Seminar convenor Prof. Norbert Bugeja by email.
