Tokyo College Event: “The worlds of the Black Death: new approaches”
Details
| Type | Lecture |
|---|---|
| Intended for | General public / Enrolled students / Applying students / International students / Alumni / Companies / High school students / University students / Academic and Administrative Staff |
| Date(s) | April 16, 2025 10:00 — 11:30 |
| Location | Online |
| Entrance Fee | No charge |
| Registration Method | Advance registration required
|
| Registration Period | March 12, 2025 — April 16, 2025 |
| Contact | tokyo.college.event@tc.u-tokyo.ac.jp |
Abstract
The “Black Death” is the traditional name for the climax of the second plague pandemic, which spread across Europe from 1347 onwards. It remains the greatest demographic catastrophe in human history. Today, its study is an interdisciplinary laboratory: joint advances in funerary archaeology and anthropology, as well as microbiology and environmental sciences, have revolutionized the approach. From the analysis of DNA to that of solar radiation, this new knowledge is contributing to the overall scenario of the greatest demographic catastrophe in the history of Eurasia. Does this make it any more intelligible? For the new approaches to the plague also pose a narrative challenge: how to write a global history of a long-term event on a global scale. While it seems clear today that the plague’s routes trace the lines of force of connected worlds, the exact geography of its spread remains partly obscure. The worlds of the Black Death thus map out a space that is both discontinuous and global, like an archipelago.Program
LecturePatrick BOUCHERON (Professor, Collège de France)
Commentator
SUZUKI Akihito (Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, 春雨直播app)
Moderator
SHIMAZU Naoko (Professor, Tokyo College, 春雨直播app)
