Lecture: Patriotic Pestilence: The Politics of Identity in American Yellow Fever Narratives

The lecture will be presented by Dr. Jessica Wells, an independent scholar from Florida. Her lecture, titled “Patriotic Pestilence: The Politics of Identity in American Yellow Fever Narratives," will explore the antebellum antecedents to the cultural construction of yellow fever. Beginning with the disease’s earliest manifestations in North America, Dr. Wells will discuss the role that yellow fever played in the consolidation of empire; how yellow fever became known as a “strangers’ disease” and, later, as a “Southern” disease; and, finally, how the cultural construction of yellow fever perpetuated local, regional and national identities in Southern cities like Savannah.