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  • About RSIS
      IntroductionBuilding the FoundationsWelcome MessageBoard of GovernorsHonours and Awards for RSIS Staff and StudentsRSIS Endowment FundEndowed ProfessorshipsCareer OpportunitiesGetting to RSIS
      Staff ProfilesExecutive Deputy Chairman’s OfficeDean’s OfficeManagementDistinguished FellowsFaculty and ResearchAssociate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research AnalystsVisiting FellowsAdjunct FellowsAdministrative Staff
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      Research CentresCentre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      Research ProgrammesNational Security Studies Programme (NSSP)Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      Future Issues and Technology ClusterResearch@RSIS Newsletter
      Other ResearchScience and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
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      Glossary of AbbreviationsPolicy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
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    • RSIS Virtual Roundtable with Dr Adam Garfinkle, RSIS Distinguished Visiting Fellow; and Founding Editor of The American Interest
    RSIS Virtual Roundtable with Dr Adam Garfinkle, RSIS Distinguished Visiting Fellow; and Founding Editor of The American Interest
    COVID-19: The Literature on Pandemics
    04 May 2020
    11:00 - 12:00
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    The RSIS Virtual Roundtable is open only to RSIS staff and students.

     

    Abstract

    Some truths and insights about human nature, including human social and political nature, are better expressed in fiction than in the didactic works of scholars.  Plenty of literature exists, in English or English translation, about plagues, and these can easily be brought together in a talk that can shed light on our own circumstances.

    Such a talk could include these five different kinds of works:  Daniel Defoe, In the Year of the Plague (1722); Albert Camus, The Plague (1947); Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain (1971); Paulo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl (2009); and Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven (2014).

    Each one of these books bears its own merits. Examined together in a comparative framework, they bear insight that is more than the sum of the five parts. While government experts must focus on large problem-solving formulae, we as individuals and as families have emotional needs that such a comparative literary framework can service.

     

    About the Speaker

    Adam Garfinkle is on a year-long engagement at RSIS as Distinguished Visiting Fellow. Aside from being Founding Editor of The American Interest, Dr Garfinkle has served as Editor of The National Interest, as Principal Speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of State while attached to the Policy Planning Staff of the State Department, was chief writer of the Hart-Rudman Commission reports, and has taught at several institutions of higher education including SAIS/Johns Hopkins. His PhD in International Relations is from the University of Pennsylvania.

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