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Conversations

Conversations aims to provide OLLI-UM members with a reprieve from digital devices and the outside world, offering opportunities to explore edgy and occasionally controversial topics that broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding. We’ll interview distinguished faculty members who are captivating and sometimes controversial. They are all helping shape the future through their interaction with students, our future leaders. Through interview-style discussions, we will feature a diverse array of guests, including individuals with real-world expertise, who delve into subjects and issues that have a personal impact on us. The interview will be one hour long with 30 minutes for audience Q & A.

Programs take place in-person only.

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Conversations: (4/15) Epidemic Diseases and their Impact on Civilizations throughout History - Schedule: 1 Session(s) | Tu | 4/15/2025-4/15/2025 | 10:00 AM-11:30 AM

Fee: $12.00
Sessions: 1 | Days: Tu
Dates: 4/15/2025 - 4/15/2025
Times: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Building: Morris Lawrence Building- Washtenaw Community Coll
Room: The Pond Room
Instructor:

From antiquity to today, epidemic diseases have devastated nations and their populations. Repeatedly, they have triggered broad ranging consequences for societies—in the economic, social, cultural, religious, and governmental realms. We will use selected epidemics throughout history to illustrate the extent of this epidemic impact and reveal how civilizations not only become vulnerable to epidemics, but also refractory to human efforts to eradicate them.

Powel Kazanjian is an infectious diseases doctor and medical historian. He has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Tufts, and at the University of Michigan, where he is Professor and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Professor in the Department of History. His medical background and historical training have provided a multidisciplinary approach to his teaching and scholarship. His courses on the “History of Epidemics” and “Sexually Transmitted Diseases” offer students a comprehensive lens to view the impact that infectious diseases have had on societies throughout history.

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