Plague and the Persecution of Minorities: How the New Sciences of Plague Are Changing Our Understanding of Responses to the Black Death

Even before COVID-19, major rethinking was already underway about the causes, timing, and geographic spread of what is still considered the world’s worst pandemic, the Black Death of the late medieval period. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, a revolution has been in motion in the biological sciences, allowing a new kind of knowledge about the history of once-living organisms, including pathogenic microbes. We can now pursue questions about past pandemics in ways that were not imaginable even a few years ago. How might we reevaluate the narratives we tell, once we consider where and when specific bacteria were present?

Newly examined historical sources suggest the presence of plague several decades earlier than previously assumed. Drawing on these new findings in molecular biology, bioarchaeology, and climate history, this talk alters the perception of episodes of persecution of minority groups both before and during the late medieval plague pandemic.

Established in 1996, the annual Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Lecture honors the memory of Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff, parents of Eleanor Meyerhoff Katz, wife of Herbert D. Katz, and philanthropists who supported numerous and enduring civic and Jewish causes. The series brings to Penn preeminent scholars for a campus talk meant to enrich the experience of Katz Center fellows and opens the fellowship theme to the broader university community.