Persisting Pandemics: Syphilis, AIDS, COVID with Professor Powel Kazanjian
In this lecture Professor Kazajian will discuss his most recent book Persisting Pandemics. From antiquity to today, epidemic diseases have devastated nations and their populations. Repeatedly, epidemics like syphilis, AIDS and COVID, have triggered broad ranging consequences for societies in the economic, cultural, religious, and governmental realms. We examine the histories of these diseases to explore how civilizations have become vulnerable to epidemics and refractory to efforts to eliminate disease. We can also use these histories to inform us and hopefully provide guidance on issues involving mistrust of science, governmental downplaying of disease threat, and prioritizing personal liberties over public good. These issues vex public health officials who confront today’s outbreaks and affect all of us who live in society today.
Powel Kazanjian is an infectious diseases doctor and a medical historian. Born and raised in Newport, RI, he received degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (A.B, 1975), Tufts University (M.D., 1979), Harvard University (M.A. in History of Science, 2002) and University of Michigan (Ph.D., in History, 2012). He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago (1979-1982) and in Infectious Diseases at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston (1982-1984). He practiced medicine in Newport, RI from 1984-1988. He then returned to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School as an instructor from 1989 to 1993, then as assistant professor from 1993 to 1994. He joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 1994, was promoted to professor in 2003, and served as head of the Infectious Disease Department from 2005 to 2024. He is currently emeritus professor of medicine at the Medical School, emeritus professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, and emeritus professor of history in the College of Literature, Arts and Sciences.
He is an internationally known scholar, clinician and teacher. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles on his medical research about HIV and infectious diseases and two books on the history of medicine: Frederick Novy and the Development of Bacteriology (Rutgers University Press, 2017) and Persisting Pandemics: Syphilis, AIDS and COVID. (Rutgers University Press, 2024).
His medical background and historical training have provided a multidisciplinary approach to his teaching and scholarship. He has received three teaching awards at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. His courses on the “History of Epidemics”, “Sexually Transmitted Diseases”, and “the Doctor in Society” offered in the History Department provide students with a comprehensive lens to view the impact that infectious diseases have had on societies throughout history.
Lecture followed by book signing
Friday, September 26, 2025
6:00 pm
Free
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