Please join us for an online seminar co-sponsored by the School of International and Public Affairs, the Earth Institute, and the Mailman School of Public Health
Co-hosts: Scott Barrett (
[email protected]) and Jeffrey Sachs (
[email protected]), with Yanis Ben Amor (
[email protected])
TA: Andrew Wilson (
[email protected])
We are in the midst of a global crisis as life-altering as any since World War II—a crisis of human–nature (coronavirus) interactions mediated by technology (including masks, testing, and vaccine development and distribution), social norms (including social distancing, wearing, and vaccine refusal), and public policies (including school closings, contact tracing, and restrictions on movement) that are often—but not always—underpinned by science. So far, society’s response to this crisis has been foremost a patchwork: there has been little international coordination; even within some nations, such as the United States, there has been little centralized coordination. Though the COVID-19 crisis is unique, it is not the first of its kind, nor will it be the last. At some point, this crisis will end, but its effects will persist. Your generation will be changed by it forever.
In this online seminar, we will consider many aspects of the current pandemic, from its emergence and spread to its ultimate end. We will also consider the broader implications of the pandemic for governance and the future of humanity.
Students of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs are able to combine this online seminar with an independent research project (“independent study”) for credit; those interested should be in touch with Andrew Wilson by 16 September 2020. This independent research would be supervised by Scott Barrett and Andrew Wilson.
SCHEDULE
(pre-readings for each meeting are available here)
16 September
Findings of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission
Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor, Columbia
Yanis Ben Amor, Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute
(the Commission’s findings will be released on 15 September 2020)
23 September
Healthy Buildings as Part of a Hierarchy of Controls for the Safe Return to Offices
Joseph Allen, Associate Professor of Exposure Assessment Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
30 September
COVID-19, Partisanship, and the 2020 Election
Robert Shapiro, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government and Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia
7 October
The Science and Politics of Predicting and Preventing Pandemics
Peter Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance
14 October
Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Responses
Joseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia
21 October
COVID-19 Vaccines in a Time of Anti-Science
Peter Hotez, University Professor, Baylor University
28 October
Workplace Collective Action, Unions, and Worker Health and Safety in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Suresh Naidu, Professor in Economics and International and Public Affairs, Columbia
Alex Hertel-Fernandez, Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia
4 November
Transmission Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2
Jeffrey Shaman, Professor in Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia
11 November
Topic TBD
18 November
Topic TBD
2 December
Topic TBD
9 December
Topic TBD
A word about the readings
The academic community has responded to this crisis with verve. A lot of research has been undertaken and disseminated in a short period of time. Some of this will hold up, some will be cast aside in favor of more up-to-date analyses, and some of it may be shown to be unreliable or even false. You should always read with a critical eye, but even more so as regards work being produced and disseminated in a hurry and analyzing data that apply to a rapidly evolving situation.
