Looking Sideways: Locating Epidemics and Erasures in South Asia
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
- Source
- Bulletin of the history of medicine. 94(4)
- Subject
- History
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak
Plague
South asia
Asia
Medicine (miscellaneous)
Redress
Influenza epidemics
Historiography
History, 19th Century
General Medicine
History, 20th Century
Plague (disease)
Politics
Framing (social sciences)
Political economy
Influenza, Human
Humans
Epidemics
General Nursing
- Language
- ISSN
- 1086-3176
While focused on the United States, Rosenberg's work on epidemics offers a nuanced framing that defines the stages and unfolding trajectories of epidemics. His writing is a good starting point to analyze the scope and challenges of epidemic historiography in South Asia. To redress its gaps, I have suggested an approach focused on writing histories of epidemics "sideways" and examined plague and influenza epidemics to situate the fluid politics of lived risks and marginality, moving away from dominant interpretations that have tried to characterize epidemics as finite and episodic.