Next webinar April 21

masv on 13. April 2022

The next PANSOC webinar will be on April 21 at 1600. Jord Hanus, University of Antwerp, will present “Socioeconomic Status and Epidemic Mortality in an Urban Environment (Mechelen, Belgium): Were Dysentery (1794) and Cholera (1866) Socially Neutral Diseases?”

In this paper, we present some of the first results of the http://www.epibel.be project on Epidemics and Inequality in Belgium, investigating socio-economic gradients in (epidemic) mortality for the mid-sized town of Mechelen (or Malines). We study the social profiles of the victims of two large outbreaks (dysentery in 1794 and cholera in 1866) in comparison with regular mortality in an attempt to map the ‘epidemic mortality premium’. This analysis connects various strands of literature, pushing our understanding of the health gradient further back in time as well as providing a detailed long-term understanding of an early-modern urban mortality regime, both in times of (epidemiological) crisis and in demographically less eventful periods.

Jord’s bio: “Since September 2021 I work as postdoc researcher on the EPIBEL project (www.epibel.be), which allows me to combine my passion for the study of inequalities in economic and social development with a very topical theme: the societal impact of epidemics. Before, I wrote a PhD (2006-2010) and worked as postdoc (2010-2013) on economic growth and inequality in the early modern Low Countries. Until 2021 I then served as Head of the Research Affairs Office of the UAntwerp’s Dept. of Research Affairs & Innovation (ADOC).”

Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a link.

Next PANSOC webinar

masv on 1. April 2022

On April 7, Amanda Wissler will present “The Long-Term Impacts of Pandemic Disease: Health and Survival after the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.”

This presentation explores how the 1918 pandemic caused long-term alterations to population health and demography in the United States. Taking a bioarchaeological approach, I analyze frailty and survival using the skeletal remains of individuals who died before and after the 1918 pandemic. 


Amanda Wissler, PhD, is an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of South Carolina and a Visiting Researcher at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 

Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a link.

Next Webinar March 31

masv on 28. March 2022

At 1600 Oslo time, Lianne Tripp, University of Northern British Columbia, will present:

Overlooking the demographic data: COVID-19 in First Nations in Canada

Previous studies on Indigenous populations and COVID-19 have argued for the need to collect COVID-19 data on Indigenous populations because during times of pandemics they experience more severe health outcomes in relation to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Counterintuitively, studies have found that the COVID-19 rates for some countries (such as in Canada) are higher in non-Indigenous population than Indigenous populations. A re-examination of COVID-19 in Canada reveals misinterpretations and misrepresentations of the data. The failure to recognize that the Canadian COVID-19 data for Indigenous populations was collected for First Nations living on reserves only is one misinterpretation. By end of December 2020, the prevalence rates were higher in First Nations populations living on reserves than non-First Nations populations, and COVID-19 mortality rates in First Nations exceeded the rest of the country by the end of April 2021. There was also considerable regional variation in rates of COVID-19 among First Nations communities across the country, where in western Canada the highest rates were observed.  

Dr Tripp is a medical anthropologist, whose research involves the areas of historical demography and epidemiology (infectious diseases). Emphasis is given to combining an empirical approach with a bio-cultural lens on demographic, primary health reports and qualitative information from historical records. Lianne’s publications have dealt with such matters as: colonial health; disease risk; bio-cultural dimensions of epidemics and pandemics; age and sex/gender differentials in disease experience; and health and religiosity. The diseases of focus are cholera, COVID-19,  measles, 1918 pandemic influenza, tuberculosis, undulant fever, whooping cough, and yellow fever.

Next webinar this Thursday

masv on 15. March 2022

The next PANSOC webinar will be March 17 at 1600 CET. Margarida Pereira will present: “The 2020 Syndemic of Obesity and COVID-19 in an Urbanized World.”

One-hundred years after one of the largest infectious disease pandemics, the Spanish influenza, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. As in 1918-20, the most common public health measures in 2020 to control the spread of this highly contagious disease were essentially non-pharmaceutical. The first COVID-19 outbreaks occurred in urban areas, which confirmed that these areas bring together the perfect conditions for fast dissemination of infectious diseases. Also, at an early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians and scientists observed that individuals with specific comorbidities, and namely with obesity, not only were at higher risk of contracting severe illness but also had increased odds of dying. Hence, urban areas became naturally privileged settings for the uprising of the syndemic of obesity and COVID-19.

Margarida Pereira is a Health Geographer, and her research focuses on the social determinants of health. Currently, Margarida is a postdoctoral fellow at PANSOC and is studying the syndemic relation between obesity and COVID-19 from a social science perspective.

Next webinar on March 10

masv on 7. March 2022

Tamara Giles-Vernick, Institut Pasteur, will present: “Complex local vulnerabilities and the COVID-19 pandemic in France.”

Who is responsible for health during a pandemic? This long-standing question, debated widely among state and local authorities, international institutions, and health experts, has also come to fore in our Vulnerability Assessment among lay publics in France and four other European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. This presentation draws on our 177 qualitative interviews (157 Vulnerability Assessments + 20 supplementary interviews) conducted in France in 2021.

Dr. Tamara Giles-Vernick is Director of Research and Unit head of the Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence Unit – the Institut Pasteur’s first social sciences research unit in its 130-year history. Dr. Giles-Vernick currently coordinates SoNAR-Global, a European Commission-funded global social sciences research network for preparedness and response to infectious threats. A specialist in the medical anthropology and history of central and west Africa, her current research focuses on COVID-19 and its consequences, as well as the emergence of zoonotic diseases and epidemics. In addition, she has published on viral hepatitis, Ebola, Buruli ulcer, the historical emergence of HIV in Africa, global health in Africa, the history of influenza pandemics, and environmental history.

Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a Zoom link.