of-boils-and-sorts

[of-boils-and-sorts]

Scav. Hunt P5: Synthesis

Looking back at the research performed so far, I think I’ve come a long way from simple Google searches to locate relevant scholarly material. At the very beginning of the scavenger hunt, my knowledge of the keyword plague was largely limited to my own existing knowledge and information contained within common websites, such as Wikipedia and Dictionary.com. 

As the hunt progressed, an increasing array of tools were shown to be at my disposal, as well as how to utilize them. Although in many cases a plague refers to the real deal, Yersinia pestis, plagues can take multiple forms, spread differently depending on societal behaviors at the time, as well as spread (or contract) based on people’s understanding of the issue. Books and articles that I have located have discussed the infamous Black Death, the AIDS epidemic in the US, medieval medical practices, 18th century religious views on disease, and even the spread of virtual diseases through digital media.

For anyone interested in researching a subject, I would suggest to start small and work up from there. Begin with a basic keyword, and go to familiar resources to see what they have to offer. From there, take note of synonyms, alternate uses of the word, as well as common words that show up in multiple descriptions (for example, in the case of plague, pandemic, epidemic, and quarantine would show up repeatedly). Then, use the keyword plus modifiers to dig a bit deeper. If you have access to university databases, they will help greatly with locating relevant materials. However, if you are working entirely on your own, Google Scholar can still be of great value. In addition, check your local library. If you cannot find something yourself, the librarians present may know, and/or have additional resources for you to utilize.

Now, it must be said that sometimes materials may not be as useful as you first think. Sometimes you can hit a dead end with a work you’ve chosen (i.e. one of my resources’ bibliography is entirely in German). However, that does not mean that the search is over. If you think that one path is exhausted, try out another. There is always more material to find, and most of the time all it takes to locate it is a change in search terms or looking into the sources.

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Bibliography

"Plague.” Dictionary, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/plague?s=t

“Plague, n.” Oxford English Dictionary, http://www.oed.com.manowar.tamucc.edu/view/Entry/144957?rskey=5tCQnP&result=1&isAdvanced=false#eid

“Plague (disease).” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_(disease)

“plague.”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://academic.eb.com.manowar.tamucc.edu/levels/collegiate/article/plague/60279

“Plague.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/plague/index.html

“Plague.” World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs267/en/

“Plague Information and Facts.” National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/the-plague/

Volberding, Paul A. "How to Survive a Plague: The Next Great HIV/AIDS History." Jama 317.13 (2017): 1298-1299.

Bos, Kirsten I., et al. "Eighteenth century Yersinia pestis genomes reveal the long-term persistence of an historical plague focus." Elife 5 (2016).

Schmid, Boris V., et al. "Climate-driven introduction of the Black Death and successive plague reintroductions into Europe." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences112.10 (2015): 3020-3025.

MLAIB

Messerli, Alfred. "How Old Are Modern Legends?." Fabula: Zeitschrift Für Erzählforschung/Journal of Folktale Studies/Revue D'Etudes Sur Le Conte Populaire, vol. 47, no. 3-4, 2006, pp. 277-288. EBSCOhost, manowar.tamucc.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2007015776&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Long, Thomas Lawrence. "A Plague on Both Your Houses of Worship: The Meanings of Epidemic Disease in William Byrd II and Cotton Mather." Literature and Medicine, vol. 31, no. 1, 2013, pp. 1-16. EBSCOhost, manowar.tamucc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2014395621&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Schweitzer, Dahlia. "When Terrorism Met the Plague: How 9/11 Affected the Outbreak Narrative." Cinema Journal, vol. 56, no. 1, 2016, pp. 118-123. EBSCOhost, manowar.tamucc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?d irect=true&db=mzh&AN=2016443844&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Gamber, John Blair. Positive Pollutions and Cultural Toxins: Waste and Contamination in Contemporary U.S. Ethnic Literatures

. U of Nebraska P, 2012. Postwestern Horizons (Postwestern Horizons). EBSCO

host, manowar.tamucc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

? direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2012382752&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Servitje, Lorenzo. "H5N1 for Angry Birds: Plague Inc., Mobile Games, and the Biopolitics of Outbreak Narratives." 

Science Fiction Studies, vol. 43, no. 1 [128], Mar. 2016, pp. 85-103. EBSCO

host, manowar.tamucc.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2016025944&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Muse/JSTOR

Mikhail, A. "The Nature of Plague in Late Eighteenth-Century Egypt." 

Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 82 no. 2, 2008, pp. 249-275. 

Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/bhm.0.0031

Theilmann, J. M. M. & Cate, F. "A Plague of Plagues: The Problem of Plague Diagnosis in Medieval England." 

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 37 no. 3, 2007, pp. 371-393. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/205737.

“Plague-Prevention Work.” Public Health Reports (1896-1970), vol. 25, no. 29, 1910, pp. 1006–1009. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4565109.

Ben-Ari, Tamara, et al. “Identification of Chinese Plague Foci from Long-Term Epidemiological Data.” 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 109, no. 21, 2012, pp. 8196–8201. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41602964.

Echenberg, M. J. "Pestis Redux: The Initial Years of the Third Bubonic Plague Pandemic, 1894-1901." Journal of World History, vol. 13 no. 2, 2002, pp. 429-449. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jwh.2002.0033

Library

France, David. How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.

[of-boils-and-sorts]

Scav. Hunt P4: Finding Primary Sources Beyond What You Are Assigned to Read in Class

In my continued research, I found that another good resource to pull from is the bibliographies of the material you’re already reading. In many (but not all) cases, you’ll be introduced to ten, twenty, thirty new books, articles, journals, etc that you may have never heard of before. And while not all of the references used will be relevant to the subject at hand, it does not take a lot of effort to do a quick search and see which ones might prove valuable. In my case, most of the documents I found were either scholarly articles or books, given the scientific/historical nature of the subject. From assorted MLAIB articles I chose, I found: 

Now, in some cases, the author of a book or article may still be unknown in their field, or perhaps they never achieved fame. In this case, the author of The AIDS Crisis is Ridiculous, Gregg Bordowitz is an author, activist, and a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago 

From among my JSTOR+Project Muse selections, I found other interesting works as well, such as :

Of these, the one author I could find definitive information on was Carol Benedict, author of Bubonic Plague in Ninteenth-Century China. Carol is (or was) a professor at Georgetown University.

Although I have not been able to read any of these books yet, by investigating into their authors, abstracts, and publicly available information, I can get enough of a picture to determine their relevance to my subject matter. Like David France, Bordowitz’ book goes into the AIDS epidemic of the late 80s/early 90s and his own experience with it. A Journal of the Plague Year by Defoe is referenced in several of the articles I’ve checked, so based on quantity should be worth a look. Knowledge and Practice in English Medicine should serve handily in explaining medical procedure of the time, as well as societal norms we may not be familiar with in 2018. And while it is true that some may turn out to be dead ends, I will never know until I see for myself!

[of-boils-and-sorts]

Scav. Hunt P3: Finding Academic Books & Learning to Use Interlibrary Loan

This week on research scavenger hunt, my quest takes me to the Mary and Jeff Bell library at TAMUCC. 

Using the expanded keyword listing I’ve developed, I searched the TAMUCC library holdings. In the process, I found a familiar title which I had come across in my initial posting while searching via Google Scholar. After reading a journal review of How to Survive a Plague, a documentary by David France in 2012, I discovered that he had later written his experience into a book of the same name. After finding out we had a copy on campus, I immediately set off. 

One of the primary reasons I was interested in such a book was its connection to an often unspoken epidemic experienced in America. Although it is not a literal plague, the outbreak of HIV/AIDS had a catastrophic effect on minority and LGBT communities. On top of the virulent effect of the disease, inaction (and even intentional removal of services) by the US government allowed the disease to spread quickly and freely. Written with first-hand experiences from the author, David France, the book provides great insight into the struggles of an ostracized community to try and respond to a threat almost entirely on their own.

Although online articles have their own value and convenience, they have their own limitations as well. Although free resources are available, such as Google Scholar, many articles, journals, and other documents are only available via exclusive databases, such as Ebsco Host or JSTOR. In addition, online databases rarely carry full books of text, which limits how much material you can access. Accessing the school’s library (or even a public one) opens up a wide range of freely available materials to studenst. In addition, TAMUCC’s ILL program means that students can retrieve various materials, both physical and digital from associated universities and libraries across the country. On the plus side, this means that you can effectively rent books, documents, and other materials you’d normally be restricted from. This is invaluable in terms of research and study, as it allows you to cast a wider net than your local area might initially restrict you by. One downside is the fact that utilizing ILL does take time, and can also give you a limited window to work within. Physical materials can take days, or even weeks to ship, and online materials sometimes still require approval. As a result, it can be impractical for individuals working on a tight schedule, or that are simply bad at managing time.

[of-boils-and-sorts]

Scav. Hunt P2: Electric Boogaloo (Academic Articles and Databases)

Last week, during my search into the initial keyword plague, it was obvious that there was a fairly clear general understanding of what the plague is, and how it can also carry separate definitions. However, searches surrounding the word itself tend to bring up a lot of the same: the infamous bubonic plague outbreak of the 1300s, the Black Death. And while academic study also puts quite a bit of focus on the Black Death, there is far more to the subject than historical figures and casualty numbers

For example, one work referenced in several articles I found via MLAIB is an ‘autobiographical’ account titled A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. Written anonymously, it reportedly explains to readers what it was like living during the 1665 London plague, although details are difficult to verify.

Another type of article that would not be located through a direct search regarding plagues is the twofold consideration of outbreaks in the United States post 9/11. At the time, the war on terror was escalating rapidly and the possible threat of bioweapons was a nightmarish reality. However, America immediately began to fear anyone of Middle-Eastern descent as well. Considered a foreign body, these people were suddenly threats to American life

One article I was not initially expecting was the expansion of a plague, literally and metaphorically, via digital media. In H5N1 for Angry Birds: Plague Inc., Mobile Games, and the Biopolitics of Outbreak Narratives by Lorenzo Servitje, we can see both how society interprets and reacts to possible plague scenarios, but also how society itself shifts and adapts to an outbreak.

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Other articles I found, via JSTOR and Project Muse, also bore useful fruit. In one, a cycle of plagues, famines, and other disasters had been striking Egypt during the 18th century. Yet, rather than view as a blight from outside of the country (as many other nations have reacted to plague outbreaks), Egypt considered it to be just another natural (albeit horrendous) event.

Another, this time specifically about the Black Death itself, looked into issues that professionals (and those unlucky enough to get the job) encountered in trying to combat the plague in 14th century Britain. At the time, medical knowledge was incredibly limited, and biologic processes were still viewed in terms of humours and even religious piety.

The final article I looked at revealed a plague outbreak that was previously unaware of, which happened fairly recently in historical terms. The ‘third bubonic plague��� struck in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and spread from China through Hong Kong to a great number of nations in the region, and even around the globe. However, in comparison to the vast number of cases experienced in Asian nations like China and India, Europe and the United States experienced considerably fewer cases. Although the distances involved had an effect on the spread of the plague, Western medical professionals were familiar with the disease and mindful of its spread. 

[of-boils-and-sorts]

Scav. Hunt P1: General Web Browsing

After looking into various definitions of the word plague, the two most common implications of the word are:

A: the literal plague, caused by a type of bacteria, Yersinia pestis, infamous for inducing three massive pandemics including the Black Death, as well as countless smaller outbreaks throughout human history

B: a noun or verb used to describe something as being incredibly persistent, negative, and/or synonymous with a disease outbreak.

Although the word plague and its primary definitions are fairly straightforward, there is a lot more behind it than dastardly bacteria. Though they are naturally occurring, plagues have been used occasionally through history as a form of biological warfare against other people. Depending on where you stand, the actions (and even inaction) of the US government in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly among minority and LGBT communities, could be viewed as an act of biological warfare. The disease is transmitted by fleas carried by rats, which hitch rides with humans. As a result, all sorts of human social interactions can tie into the spread (or prevention) of a plague outbreak. Human beings can even be considered a plague themselves, as cruel as it sounds. In the past, Germans, Irish, and Italians could be considered foreign, undesirable, pests, and even threats, in the modern era it is anyone of Middle-Eastern descent. 

By considering the term plague in tandem with other words, a variety of different avenues can be explored. For me, although I was incredibly familiar with the biologic details of the bacterium and how spread, I was not aware of details like where it originated from, how people reacted to it (as well as other outbreaks), and even what other things could be considered plagues.