The final “Out of Isolation” webinar of the semester is focused on COVID-19 and Native populations, and the history of how disease brought in by colonialism has impacted Indigenous people. From the event description:
Discussions about COVID-19 are quick to note that Native Americans are disproportionately impacted by the disease, with an overall incidence among American Indian and Alaskan Native people that is 3.5 times that among white individuals and the highest hospitalization and mortality rate of any group in the US. But pandemics are neither new nor unprecedented for Indigenous people in the United States. So how does the devastating impact of this disease fit into the longer historical context of immunopolitics in Indian Country? How are these connections made, why, and by whom? Does tying this pandemic to the larger histories of colonialism create greater empathy and action or present Native Americans as always already dead at the hands of diseases?
The discussion, happening November 10th at 4 p.m., will be led by Jenny Davis from Anthropology and American Indian Studies. You can register here.
Image provided by Humanities Research Institute.