Using Gregory of Tours’ account of the 571 Clermont plague outbreak as our point of departure, RICH fellow Kristina Sessa will explore how men, women, and children responded to the material, social, and cultural contingencies of disasters on different scales of time, space, and social organization. Pushing back against uncritical readings that buoy the catastrophist literature, I’ll argue that Gregory worked with inherited scripts and motifs, which complicate how we interpret his accounts, and when taken seriously, shed light on how he understood disaster. I’ll then switch gears to investigate what Gregory’s disaster writing tells us about the social burdens of survival on the levels of the household and individual by looking at different experiences of displacement, a documented phenomenon that’s received limited attention from scholars. I’ll end with a brief discussion of plague’s complex disease ecology by presenting a case of comorbidity – a feature that Gregory couldn’t see but that science-forward research helps us understand as a contributing stressor.
The lecture will be followed by drinks at the Yard. We hope to see you all there!
