Media and Epidemics

You can read our Media and Epidemics @euchanse.bsky.social @ukri.org ‘Story of Change’ which reflects our project’s work on narrative vulnerability during #Covid19 as a result of a collaboration with non-profit organisation Fragile Society. See this and more here: chanse.org/medep/ #hstm #medhums

Epidemics in Word and Imagination: Ukrainian Literature Between Folklore, the Press, and Science “…epidemics are never only about pathogens. They are also filtered through the words of newspapers, proclamations, and popular accounts — words that, like folk tales, provided framework…

We have an insightful new blog post from Dmytro Yesypenko about the role of folklore and epidemics in nineteenth-century #Ukranian literature #hstm #histmed #litsci #medhums: mediaepidemics.com/2025/08/29/e...

The PI of our Polish team Sławomir Łotysz has just published an open-access article, "The Fear of AIDS in Late Socialist Poland," in Balkanistic Worlds #hstm #histmed: balkanistica.com/current-issu...

Fascinating hearing about the highly gendered visual and textual marketing and media representations of the Polidin vaccine in Romania (first marketed as an influenza cure, then a panacea) where female scientists were depicted as industrious yet unnamed #hstm #histsci #histmed #medhums

Gendered media representations depicted women scientists in photographs as industrious innovators yet their names remained invisible in texts, whereas male scientists were named and celebrated in texts marketing the vaccine. We look forward to reading the published research soon!

Today’s research seminar was presented by Irina Nastasa-Matei (our Romanian team PI) about the portrayal of the Polidin vaccine in Romanian media. Polidin was first marketed as a specialist cure for influenza and later as a panacea for a range of illnesses #hstm #histsci #histmed #medhums

If you’re interested in epidemics and healthcare during the communist era, don’t miss this seminar tomorrow at 10am (Central European Time)/ 9am (UK) - all are welcome & scan QR code below for Zoom link ⬇️ #hstm #medhums

Scan QR below for our seminar on Tues Sept 16 on Zoom! Irina Nastasa-Matei will discuss the public management of flu epidemics & the reorganization of Romania's healthcare system, medical infrastructure, & pharmaceutical industry during the communist era, citing the Polidin vaccine ⬇️

The Media and Epidemics team and @dremilyvincent.bsky.social really enjoyed presenting at the @euchanse.bsky.social #WeAreCHANSE conference, meeting humanities & social sciences researchers from across Europe to see how digital culture has (& continues to) transform over time @horizoneu.bsky.social

Our project was represented by @dremilyvincent.bsky.social who focused on the necessary diversity of our sources (from historic newspapers, to postage stamps) for examining the range of lived #pandemic experiences and how our research of the past can prepare us for pandemic futures #hstm #medhums

I’ll be presenting our team’s findings later this afternoon 🎉 🇵🇱

The Media and Epidemics (MEDEP) team have heard a great keynote about the necessity of the humanities and social sciences in the digital age for combating disinformation and ethical concerns across Europe and on a global scale @euchanse.bsky.social #WeAreCHANSE

The Media and Epidemics (MEDEP) team have arrived in Kraków for the @euchanse.bsky.social #WeAreCHANSE conference. We’re looking forward to sharing our findings and meeting the rest of the CHANSE projects!

I’m looking forward to presenting our findings on historic epidemics and technologies of communication on behalf of @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social at the @euchanse.bsky.social conference in Kraków on Monday! 🇵🇱 #hstm #histsci #litsci #epidemics #pandemic #medhums

The Media and Epidemics team are excited to present an overview of our research activities (from archival research to creative writing workshops) & key outputs (books, journal articles, an international conference & more) @euchanse.bsky.social Final Conference in Kraków on Monday! 🇵🇱

Our research into historical #pandemics and literature has just been published on the medical humanities platform @the-polyphony.bsky.social - find it here ⬇️ #medhums #hstm #histsci #litsi

Me and Melissa Dickson will be co-presenting research from our forthcoming @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social book to the Sydney Uni Interdisciplinary 19C Study Group on Thursday 21st on Zoom. I’ll be looking at how influenza epidemics were represented in spiritualist fiction and periodicals 📰 📖 👻

An edited collection from MEDEP team members Amelia Bonea and Irina Nastasă-Matei on women, science, engineering and medicine in the twentieth century is out today: www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

On Thursday at the @bavs-uk.bsky.social conference I’ll be on the Wilde panel discussing ‘moral pestilence’, miasma, contagion, the 1890s influenza epidemic, and immorality as an ‘Aesthetic condition’ for Wilde, Thomas Mann, and Arthur Symons! Part of the @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project 🦠😷📖📰

Find a range of #medhums blog posts below from the @euchanse.bsky.social Media and Epidemics project below ⬇️

The Media and Epidemics team are presenting all week (in person and virtually) at the International Congress of History of Science and Technology in Dunedin, NZ. Looking forward to discussing epidemics, technologies of communication, and media from the 19th century to today! #ichst #hstm #litsci

Our interdisciplinary workshop on Wednesday @unibirmingham.bsky.social will explore how, from the nineteenth century onwards, dubious tales of #disease have been distorted and sensationalised through print and digital media and literature #litsci #hstm #histsci

You can visit our blog page below for many #openaccess posts about #medhums #histmed #litsci all focused around epidemic disease and media from the nineteenth century to now ⬇️

Register for our free in-person interdisciplinary event on Disease and Narrative @unibirmingham.bsky.social on 18th June 5pm: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/disease-an...

The Media and Epidemics UK team @dremilyvincent.bsky.social and Melissa Dickson are presenting their research on nineteenth- and twentieth-century influenza epidemics today and tomorrow at the @thebsls.bsky.social online conference #BSLS2025

In our latest Media and Epidemics research seminar, Magda Zdrodowska discusses #lockdown art and portraiture, #COVID19 and #disabilitystudies to examine the concept of ‘shrinkage’ in terms of socio-cultural environments during the COVID-19 pandemic

Don’t forget to join us on Tuesday 6th May at 10am (CET) for our next Media and Epidemics research seminar ⬇️

Don’t forget to join us on Tuesday 6th May at 10am (CET) for our next Media and Epidemics research seminar ⬇️

Our UK Team Principal Investigator Dr Melissa Dickson has opened today’s @cncsi.bsky.social conference on Contagion and Contamination in the Nineteenth Century with an examination of the ‘influenza fiend’, epidemic diseases of the 1890s, & the looming presence of influenza in Dracula #litsci

When is a Pandemic also a Metaphor? “Given how central metaphor is to how we conceptualise the world, it was inevitable that metaphor would play a pivotal role in our understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Scientif…

You can read the latest Media and Epidemics blog post from Dr Tom White here. White discusses linguistics and conceptual #metaphortheory in the context of the #COVID19 pandemic: mediaepidemics.com/2025/04/28/w...