HISPS14

This course explores the intersection of natural scientific and humanistic inquiries in the context of Chile's public health system and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of biomedical science in Latin America is approached through the lens of travel as both a practice and metaphor for understanding encounters with other societies as a peril of infection and contagion. How scientific problem-solving produced anti-virus transmission protocols and vaccines and how interactions between travelers and host societies during a global pandemic expose conflicts of socioeconomic interests and human welfare provide the context and foundation for on-site examinations of the public health response and self-reflection in Chile. Students engage with local biomedical and public health researchers, healthcare providers, and cultural practitioners, and visit relevant cultural and historical sites to understand how scientific and humanistic modes of inquiry work in tandem. Recommended background: One course in chemistry or biology; one course in Hispanic studies or Latin American and Latinx studies.