HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Saturday, 18 April 2020, 11am – 12pm
Event Link (via Microsoft Teams): https://bit.ly/IMcovid19
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As the novel coronavirus is sweeping through nations around the world, historians have been pointing towards the 1918 Spanish flu as a marker to provide lessons and references amidst this unprecedented epidemic. Despite being the deadliest in history amounting to 20 million deaths worldwide and an estimated 40,000 in British Malaya, this event is not studied nearly as enough in local context. Extrapolating from past evidence and data, this forum seeks to re-trace the events of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic in British Malaya and transposing it with the Malaysian government’s response to Covid-19 so we may be able to better contextualize what we face today.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
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1. Liew Kai Khiun is currently a researcher in transnational Cultural Studies in Asia. He obtained his doctorate from the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London in 2007. His journal article on the 1918 Influenza in Malaya was part of his research dissertation on Medical History in Malaya and Singapore.
2. Por Heong Hong is a lecturer in social sciences. She is particularly interested in biopolitics, politics of culture and politics of memory. Her geographical focus is mainly Malaysia, Southeast Asia and East Asia.
RSVP and join us via the provided link!
Event link (Microsoft Teams): https://bit.ly/IMcovid19
