On November 18th, 2021, Professor Bishnupriya Ghosh delivered a lecture on research from her upcoming book manuscript, The Virus Touch: Theorizing Epidemic Media (under contract with Duke University Press). Ghosh’s text considers how “epidemic intensities,” as a research concept enables scaling between the universal and the particular, and therein attunes us to both scientific findings and the differential vulnerabilities of the global pandemic.
Ghosh’s lecture delivered a preview from the upcoming text, drawing up on her work also on the HIV epidemic, which showed similarities and bases for her work on understanding the spread of COVID-19 in India. Her work contests that media environments – seeing, feeling, sensing the mediums that sustain host and microbe – are dominant epidemic media of the pandemic experience. After a riveting lecture that took participants through her multi-disciplinary research, there were about 45 minutes for questions. The lecture was well attended by South Asia-affiliated staff and students.
