Recorded April 27, 2020.

This Behind the Headlines, in partnership with the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanites at Columbia University, explored what pandemics and public health crises mean for democracies around the world.

Social distancing, cocooning, and ‘lockdown’ measures implemented worldwide to stall the spread of Covid-19 have raised questions about what the absence of public life means for democracy. We have also seen a range of emergency powers introduced by governments trying to manage social order during this time. Our international panel will discuss the politics and policies of disease prevention and control, how the absence of public life might impact on those on the margins of our societies, and what we might learn from plague and democracy in classical Greece.

The Behind the Headlines Series is supported by the John Pollard Foundation.

Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/