This seminar will discuss what happened in Okoboji, a small tourist town in the American Midwest, when a collective turn from the coronavirus to the economy occurred in the COVID summer of 2020. State political failures, local negotiations among political and public health leaders, and community (dis)belief about the virus resulted in Okoboji being declared a hotspot just before the Independence Day weekend, when an influx of half a million people visit the town.
Emily Mendenhall grew up in Okoboji and her family still lives there. As the events unfolded, Mendenhall was in Okoboji, where she spoke formally with over 100 people and observed a community that rejected public health guidance, revealing deep-seated mistrust in outsiders and strong commitments to local thinking. Mendenhall will discuss issues of trust and how isolationist popular beliefs spread in America's small communities.
This seminar is based on Emily Mendenhall's newest book called Unmasked: COVID, Community and the Case of Okoboji. Professor Jonathan Metzl states that “Unmasked is a breathtakingly brilliant portrait of the ways that communities define boundaries in the face of a pandemic in which threats come from afar and from within.” Dr. Seema Yasmin called it “an essential read for understanding these increasingly disunited states”, while Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Art Cullen described it this way: "Emily Mendenhall uses the eye of a medical anthropologist and the ear of an insider to explore the reaction of her conservative hometown in Northwest Iowa to the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Please note that the seminar will be held in English and will not be streamed online.
About Emily Mendenhall
Emily Mendenhall is a medical anthropologist and Professor in the Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA) Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She has published widely at the boundaries of anthropology, psychology, medicine, and public health, authored several books, as well as edited Special Issues on syndemics, syndemic theory and methods, and migration and health. Mendenhall is Editor-in-Chief of Social Science and Medicine-Mental Health and leads the office of Medical Anthropology and Critical Social Science. She has served as Honorary Faculty at the University of the Witwatersrand for the past decade.
About this seminar series
“Global Health Unpacked” is a seminar series that aims to bring together the global health community on a regular basis to critically discuss key debates in Global Health in informal and interactive seminars. Guest speakers (both from the University of Oslo and from other universities) will bring an original perspective to the topic and engage in a conversation with the audience.
With this seminar, we also hope to facilitate exchanges and collaborations between global health researchers and students present in Oslo and foster interdisciplinary research. “Global Health Unpacked” is jointly organized by the research group Global Health Politics, Centre for Development and the Environment and the UiO Centre for Global Health.