New virtual lecture series launches Friday, Jan. 29

The Social and Cultural Impacts of Pandemics is the focus of a new virtual lecture series that kicks off 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29 with a roundtable discussion involving several Youngstown State University faculty.

The free lectures and discussions are available via Zoom.

“The goal of the series is to highlight the impacts of COVID-19 and other pandemics on diverse communities,” said Martha Pallante, the Charles Darling Endowed Faculty Chair in American Social History at YSU. “We have a wealth of expertise here at YSU that has not been systemically tapped during this period of crisis. We feel we have much to offer.”

Pallante will moderate the roundtable discussion that also will include Daniel Ayana, professor of History; Alyssa Falcone, the David and Helga Ives Visiting Professor of the Humanities; Ou Hu, chair of Economics; Gary Walker, professor of Biology; and Mary Yacovone, professor of Health Professions.

Also part of the series is a presentation by Mikaela Morgane Adams, associate professor of Native American History at the University of Mississippi, at 4 p.m. Feb. 18. The lecture is titled “A Veritable Nightmare, Pitiable and Harrowing beyond Degree: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1920 in Indian Country." The lecture is part of the History Across the Humanities Conference on campus.

Additional lectures in the series will be announced throughout spring and into early summer.

Pallante, longtime chair of YSU’s History department, was named the first Darling Endowed Faculty Chair in September 2020. Darling, former YSU History professor and longtime popular host on WYSU radio, died in 2018 at the age of 86 and left a gift of $2.2 million in his estate to establish the chair position.