Pandemic Dialogues: Reckoning and Recovery
The Pandemic Dialogues was a new series conceived to address and provide perspective on the current civic crisis introduced under the conditions of the pandemic by gathering together academic voices with the school’s faculty to lead webinar discussions. The first series discussed classic texts of literature and popular culture on the topic of epidemics and take questions from a livestream audience.
With the second series, The Pandemic Dialogues: Reckoning and Recovery, the school turns to consider the lessons from past recoveries, like FDR’s implementation of the New Deal, and to discuss how the pandemic might affect the present and the future, U.S. relations with China, or our trust in science and technology to improve the world.
Join us for a series of virtual discussions about reckoning with the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and how to recover from it. The webinars allow a live stream audience to pose questions to our guest experts.
How to participate in one of our virtual discussions:
- Click the registration link and complete the registration.
- After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with the information to log on to the Zoom meeting.
- At the time of the discussion, click the link to join the meeting. You will be placed in the discussion with your microphone muted and camera off.
Watch previous episodes
The Great Depression, FDR, and the New Deal Emergency in America
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt first came to office as President of the United States in 1932, the country was mired in economic depression. How did Roosevelt act to address the conditions of the Great Depression? Are there lessons for the current economic circumstances in those troubled times?
Speakers: Marc Landy; Paul Carrese, Director, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, Arizona State University and Sean Beineburg
Date: June 1, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Zoom
Health, Science, and the Common Good
Modern science and medical experts have played a commanding role in the response of the United States and the Western world to the COVID-19 pandemic, to the neglect of other disciplinary and policy perspectives, sidelining dimensions of social life beyond the epidemiological. To what extent does this reliance on medical science and the predictive qualities of the technological age reflect justifiable confidence in science to address all the ills of society, perhaps even human mortality? To what extent does this approach place unwarranted faith in modern science to guide societies through present challenges? Is there a broader approach to addressing the demands of human health and the common good? What has been left out of the picture painted by epidemiological numbers and predictive public health models, and what must be brought back in? Has our culture over medicalized human life? Ought we to be skeptical of claims to medically describe and control (even though public health measures) the risks that life brings? Please join us for a conversation about medical science, human risk, and morality with Dr. Farr Curlin and Professor Ben Hurlbut.
Speakers: Farr Curlin, M.D., Duke University, Ben Hurlbut, Arizona State University, and Paul Carrese, Director, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, Arizona State University
Date: June 15, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Zoom
The Post COVID-19 Pandemic World Order: Great Power Competition and the Case of China
This Pandemic Dialogue will address how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted great power competition and whether it represents an inflection point for China in its efforts to surpass the US as the most dominant military and economic power.
Speakers: Zack Cooper, AEI, the Alliance for Securing Democracy and Co-host of Net Assessment podcast, Paul Carrese, Director, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, Arizona State University, and Col Bruce Pagel, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership
Date: June 29, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Zoom
Co-sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Society.
The Post Pandemic Economic Reckoning
During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health professionals have assumed the driver’s seat in fashioning the public response, largely to the exclusion of other policy professionals. As the country turns to opening up the economy but still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we turn to discuss the broad public policy issues at stake with our guest, Duke University Professor Michael Munger. Munger acknowledges that there is an understandable desire of the medical community to minimize health problems, and the desire of other officials (and many in the public) to preserve the health of the economic system. He has proposed a five-part conceptual "back on track" program if the economy is more or less intact, and a way of thinking about what to do if the worst happens and the economy is devastated.
Either way, Munger argues, it is important to recognize that mobilization of ideas, and a positive, optimistic vision for the future is required. We shouldn't just be against policies; we need to say what we are for.
Speakers: Michael Munger, Duke University; Paul Carrese, Director, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, Arizona State University, and Peter McNamara, Arizona State University
Date: July 13, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Zoom