Thread by @steerewilliams

Incredibly excited and honored to kick off the #PandemicMethodologies conference with some reflections on my public history work during the past year in my talk “Pandemic Public(s): At the Intersection of Public Health and Public History” This two-day conference lineup is 🔥

I have been teaching the history public health for over a decade, telling students that we’ll see the next big pandemic in our lifetime- and to expect the historical continuities of infectious disease; fear, scapegoating, science denialism, and innovation #PandemicMethodologies

But I was the one who wasn’t prepared. Within weeks I was constantly fielding questions from reporters, giving weekly public lectures, and writing op-eds. I was even asked to be on my uni’s @cofc COVID-Task Force. Folks wanted insight into past pandemics.
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I was caring for my two young children at home and my partner works in our local hospital and was daily seeing COVID-19 patients. It was a Janus-faced experience of stress and anxiety for months. And my historical training was my coping device
#PandemicMethodologies

I quickly realized that more than anything else, the COVID-19 pandemic needed the stories of everyday people. Esp. marginalized people. Histories of past pandemics have been hampered by the silences of archives. We need to do better.
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In my classes, I shifted papers and exams to daily journals and personal reflections- My goal was to empower students to have a voice and to record that voice. In our Zoom classes I spent a lot less time ‘teaching’ content and more time just listening #PandemicMethodologies

Those student journals end up in a local covid-19 archive project I helped to start. What voices have we forgotten in the past? What can public history projects undertaken during a pandemic do now that will have lasting impacts? #PandemicMethodologies musc.libguides.com/waring/service…

I’m rethinking the lit on pandemics in light of COVID-19. Students said things like “I have no idea what to believe anymore,” and “today was another rough day.” We need to record and amplify these everyday voices to explore individual and collective trauma #PandemicMethodologies

I’ve been inspired this year by incredible public history projects around the world- no one more than @USofDisaster whose daily program @covidcalls has been at the forefront of scholars trying to record the voices of COVID-19. #PandemicMethodologies slowdisaster.com/covid-calls-2/

What I’ve learned from @USofDisaster and others is that pandemics need to be understood as natural disasters. We need proactive public facing scholarship before and during, not just after those disasters end. This is esp. important globally w/ long COVID. #PandemicMethodologies

Historians of medicine, now more than ever, should embrace public history, esp in their local communities. To help us process and record COVID-19, but also to push back and illuminate the myriad health disparities that our communities continue to face #PandemicMethodologies

Thanks for listening to this thread, and be sure to follow the amazing @panhist for the next presentation. And checkout this incredible resource for COVID-related public history projects ne-mo.org/news/article/n… #PandemicMethodologies