Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)
An OsloMet Centre of Research Excellence studying the societal aspects of pandemics
Senterleder Mamlund har har skrivekløe i sommer og skrevet kort kronikk hvor han mener at vi bør vise (enda) mer faglig stolthet. Det er lov å være stolt akademiker og å vise det.
Kronikken kan leses her: Akademikere, vis mer faglig stolthet! (forskerforum.no)
Senterleder Mamelund hevder i ny kronikk i Khrono at “Ja, det finnes tildels store utfordringer når pensum, undervisning, publisering, formidling, konferanser og samarbeid alt skjer på engelsk. Internasjonaliseringen har imidlertid kommet for å bli og kan ikke reverseres”.
Du kan lese kronikken her: Engelsk til besvær? (khrono.no)
I en ny kronikk hevder senterleder Mamelund at relevant sommerjobb som forsker stjeler ikke tid fra studier og kan bidra positivt til læring, nettverk og til suksess i utdanning og det akademiske arbeidsmarkedet. Arbeidsgivere i akademia tjener også på å ha studenter som forskere i sommerjobb. Det er med andre ord en vinn-vinn-situasjon.
Kronikken kan leses i sin helhet her: Sommerjobb som forsker: vinn-vinn for studenter og arbeidsgivere (khrono.no)
Gerardo Chowell has written a new commentary piece. You can read it here: Political Determinants of Health: Has COVID-19 Exposed the Worst of It? | AJPH | Vol. Issue (aphapublications.org)
We are proud to have published yet another paper from our Social Science Meets Biology | CAS (cas-nor.no) project:
Read press release from OsloMet here: New research sheds light on mortality rate disparities in Alaska during the 1918 flu pandemic – OsloMet
Read full paper here: Death on the permafrost: Revisiting the 1918-20 influenza pandemic in Alaska using death certificates | American Journal of Epidemiology | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
Abstract: The 1918-20 influenza pandemic devastated Alaska’s Indigenous populations. We report on quantitative analyses of pandemic deaths due to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) using information from Alaska death certificates dating between 1915 and 1921 (n=7,147). Goals include a reassessment of pandemic death numbers, analysis of P&I deaths beyond 1919, estimates of excess mortality patterns overall and by age using intercensal population estimates based on Alaska’s demographic history, and comparisons between Alaska Native (AN) and non-AN residents. Results indicate that ANs experienced 83% of all P&I deaths and 87% of all-cause excess deaths during the pandemic. AN mortality was 8.1 times higher than non-AN mortality. Analyses also uncovered previously unknown mortality peaks in 1920. Both subpopulations showed characteristically high mortality of young adults, possibly due to imprinting with the 1889-90 pandemic virus, but their age-specific mortality patterns were different: non-AN mortality declined after age 25-29 and stayed relatively low for the elderly, while AN mortality increased after age 25-29, peaked at age 40-44, and remained high up to age 64. This suggests a relative lack of exposure to H1-type viruses pre-1889 among AN persons. In contrast, non-AN persons, often temporary residents, may have gained immunity before moving to Alaska.
Professor Mamelund om influensapandemier. – Goffeng På Leting | Podcast on Spotify
Lytt gjerne. Det ble en spennende samtale med Espen Goffeng om historiske pandemier, risikofaktorer og konsekvenser. Hva er egentlig long Covid? Hvor mye Covid er det egentlig i denne tilstanden? Visste du at det fantes en “long spanskesyken” i 1918?
Vi prater også Covidreaksjoner, politisering, Spanskesyken, Russian Flu, Hong Kong-virus og pandemier som sivilisasjoners kanskje uheldigste bivirkning.
The Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC) invites applications for our Fall 2024 Visiting Researcher program. Preference will be given to researchers with potential for obtaining external funding, including Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship applicants.
One applicant will be selected based on their research experience and interests. We expect that the Visiting Researcher will contribute concrete ideas for – and at least initial drafting of – a funding proposal during their stay in fall 2024 (minimum 2 weeks, preferably up to 4 weeks). These proposals will be led by the Visiting Researcher with PANSOC as a partner and submitted to local funding bodies corresponding to the researchers’ affiliations/countries or to the Research Council of Norway or NordForsk with us as PI, as appropriate.
We encourage applications from researchers in all fields with interests in the social, economic, and biological aspects of historical, current, and future pandemics. We are particularly interested in topics such as:
The Visiting Researcher program will cover transportation costs to Oslo and accommodation up to 50,000 NOK.
To apply, please send 1) a CV, 2) a description (1-2 pages) of your idea for a joint proposal, 3) tentative budget for the visit, and 4) anticipated timing or availability for travel to Oslo to Svenn-Erik Mamelund (masv@oslomet.no).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 5 July 2024
For the penultimate Pandemics & Society Seminar of our Spring 2024 series, we are pleased to welcome Christos-Stavros Konstantopoulos (McGill University). The seminar will be held on Thursday, 23 May at the normal time (1600 CET). More information about our speaker and the presentation is below. You can sign up for email notifications about the seminar series, including the Zoom details, here.
Abstract
Although interest in the history of the “Spanish” influenza pandemic has risen over the past two decades, its connection with the First World War has not yet been fully explored. To the degree that is has been the object of study, it has mostly been approached through the lens of the Western Front. In this presentation, we will talk about the influenza pandemic on the Great War’s Macedonian Front, which is the subject of a larger PhD research project comparing the influenza’s impact on the British, French, and Greek troops fighting on that front. We will start by discussing why that front is of interest to scholars researching the pandemic. Subsequently, based on Hellenic Army data drawn from reports of the army’s medical officers, we will touch on three preliminary findings: a)that the temporal pattern of the pandemic in 1918 differed from that of the Western Front, with the influenza reaching Macedonia more in a single long wave instead of two distinct waves; b)that the scale of influenza-related mortality on the Macedonia front dwarfed mortality from diseases that have captured most of the interest of medical officers at the time as well as of later historians, such as malaria, typhus, or dysentery; and c)that epidemic and endemic diseases, and in particular influenza and malaria, seem to have been correlated rather than distinct.
About the Speaker
Christos-Stavros Konstantopoulos is a first-year PhD student at McGill University, researching the “Spanish” influenza pandemic on the Macedonian Front of the First World War, in particular comparing how it affected the British, French, and Greek troops fighting on that front. He previously studied History at the University of Cambridge and Comparative Political Science at the University of Oxford, before serving in the Hellenic Army’s History Directorate. He has worked for the SCHOOLPOL project of the University of Oxford, researching the evolution of education policies in OECD countries since the Second World War. His broader interests include the history of health, population, education, and development.
