INSERCH
Initiative for Sharing Ecological Responsibility and Conserving Heritage

Pandemics in Perspective: Histories, Narratives, and Transformations across Cultures
 

Edited Volume

Editors:                      Prof. Sangeeta Mittal and Dr. Niraj Kumar Singh

Associate Editors:     Ms. Mona and Dr. Ina Goel

Publisher: TBA

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Concept Note

The history of pandemics is deeply intertwined with human civilization, reflecting societies' vulnerabilities, resilience, and evolution in the face of widespread disease. Pandemics, from the bubonic plague to COVID-19, have shaped and been shaped by cultural, political, and literary contexts. This edited volume explores the multifaceted dimensions of pandemics, focusing on their manifold effects and their representation in literature and other cultural narratives. It seeks to analyse how societies in different historical epochs have understood, narrated and responded to pandemics and how these responses continue to influence present and future approaches to global health crises. This volume, thus, aims to foster a deeper understanding of pandemics as complex socio-cultural-economic phenomena, enriching scholarly discourse and informing policy making and implementation frameworks for future challenges. This book invites interdisciplinary scholarship that bridges the historical and literary perspectives on pandemics. Contributions are encouraged from historians, literary scholars, corporate professionals, travellers and travel writers, tourism and hospitality industry experts, medical humanities researchers, sociologists, and public health experts.

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The volume to be published by a reputed publisher is an initiative of Team INSERCH (Initiative to Share Ecological responsibility and Conserving Heritage, a Registered NGO) and IJDUS (Interdisciplinary Journal of Digital Humanities and Ubiquitous Scholarship). INSERCH is a non-profit voluntary registered organisation of academicians, researchers and students from a variety of disciplines who are concerned about the health and wellbeing of the planet and its tangible and intangible heritage, natural as well as cultural and who, through their various activities, contribute meaningfully towards a better liveable environment. IJDUS is a Peer Reviewed Online Journal (ISSN 3048-9113) that has been publishing bi-annually since 2022. The collective is engaged since 2013 in organizing conferences, green initiatives, visits to places of ecological and historical interests, publications to generate awareness and make positive difference in the area of biodiversity, climate change and protection of tangible and intangible heritage. After conclusion of 6 successful National Conferences on Biodiversity and Climate Change, INSERCH organised the first International Conference on Covid 19 Pandemic: A Crisis of Human Health or Planet Health? and ’Neath the World’s Roof: Cultural Landscapes of Himalayan Communities in the Subcontinent in the series Natural and Cultural Ecosystems.

 

The collective has published three edited volumes till now: Academic and Activist Perspectives on Biodiversity and Climate Change, Vol.1 (Book Age Publishers), Academic and Activist Perspectives on Biodiversity and Climate Change Revised Edition (Book Age Publishers), and The Himalayas: The famous yet fragile roof of the world (Aakar Books). The Editors of these volumes, Prof Sangeeta Mittal (Professor, Department of English, Maharaja Agrasen College, University of Delhi) and Dr Niraj Kumar Singh (Associate Professor, Department of History, Maharaja Agrasen College, University of Delhi) have several research papers, chapters in books, research projects and other academic initiatives to their credit. This volume also has Ms. Mona, former Junior Fellow, Health Initiative, Observer Research Foundation as Associate Editor for Public Health and Dr. Ina Goel, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Thapar School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Patiala, as Associate Editor for Commerce and Culture. We request you to share your papers for publication in this forthcoming Volume.