Professor Adia Benton, of the Department of Anthropology, and Dean Adrian Randolph share reflections on COVID-19, the United States’ reaction to the virus, and other nations’ reactions to it. They also discuss how COVID-19 compares to the nature of the Ebola and HIV outbreaks, two viruses that Professor Benton has previously studied.
Adia Benton is an associate professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Northwestern University, where she is affiliated with the Science in Human Culture Program. She is the author of the award-winning book, HIV Exceptionalism: Development through Disease in Sierra Leone, and is currently writing a book about the West African Ebola outbreak. During spring quarter, she taught a Weinberg College Freshman Seminar titled Modern Plagues where she and her students investigate how the complex interactions among social, political, environmental, and economic factors influence the history of infectious disease and the efforts to address them.
Adrian Randolph is dean of the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Art History. Prior to joining Northwestern, Randolph served as the associate dean of the faculty for the Arts and Humanities at Dartmouth College. He also served as chair of the Department of Art History at Dartmouth, as well as director of the college’s Leslie Center for the Humanities.
Adrian Randolph