Contagion

Swine flu. Zika. SARS. While these and other communicable diseases are biological phenomena, our efforts to contain them reveal a preoccupation with enforcing literal and metaphorical boundaries. In turn, our fascination with images of infection—from zombie fiction to news about “viral” cyber attacks—highlights a fear of contaminating “us” with “them.” In this Writing Seminar, we explore contagion from a bio-cultural perspective and ask: How is the spread of epidemics influenced by beliefs about race, gender, and culture? What are the limits of biomedical terminology in describing nonbiological threats? First, we read government and media communications about Ebola and Zika to rethink conceptions of health and disease. Next, we examine fiction, film, and television series, like Outbreak and The Walking Dead, which deploy infection as a metaphor for cultural contamination. For the research project, students develop an argument about the spread of an actual outbreak, like cholera, or a cultural or technological phenomenon that evokes contagious imagery. Possible topics include the role of economics in determining the course of scientific research, images of infection in immigration debates, and the rise of fake news going “viral.” We close by recording science news podcasts about a fictional outbreak of the student’s invention.

For the final assignment of the semester, students recorded fictional science news podcasts about an outbreak of their own invention.

Image Information: Transmission electron microscope image of negative-stained, Fortaleza-strain Zika virus (red), isolated from a microcephaly case in Brazil.

Image Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health