
7:30pm to 9:00pm |
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Panel Discussion: Viral Imaginations
(Arts)
How is the viral imagination expressed in science, fiction, and science fiction? To what extent do narrative depictions of the apocalypse and the science of infectious disease influence each other? Find out in this riveting dialogue with these panelists:
Priscilla Wald, Ph.D., is the R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English at Duke University. Her current work focuses on the intersections among the law, literature, science, and medicine. Her recent book, Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative, considers the intersection of medicine and myth in the idea of contagion and the evolution of the contemporary stories told about the global health problem of "emerging infections."
Thomas Kerkering, M.D., is chief of infectious disease at Carilion Clinic. He went to Sierra Leone in fall 2014 to participate in the medical response to the Ebola outbreak.
Kathleen Alexander, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Virginia Tech. Her research explores the factors that influence the emergence and persistence of emerging and re-emerging diseases at the human-wildlife interface. Alexander has established a field laboratory at her study site in Northern Botswana, which has both molecular genetics and bacteriological investigations capacity--the first of its kind in the region.
Rebecca Hester, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech. Her scholarship focuses on body politics, global health, immigration, and the cultural politics of health and medicine. Her recent research examines what is considered to constitute "biological danger" and the politics of attempts to preempt, prevent, and eradicate such danger.
The discussion will be moderated by Bernice Hausman, Edward S. Diggs Professor in the Humanities, Department of English, Virginia Tech.
Cube
Free; admission first-come, first-served, but to guarantee your seat, register through the box office
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