To sign up for the 2021 Winter Lecture Series, please provide your name and email address below. We will use this information to alert you about the upcoming lectures and to send you the Zoom link to participate. Our Zoom link will enable you to access all four lectures.

2021 Winter Lecture Series:  Pandemics: Old and New
For this 37th Winter Lecture Series of 2021, we focus on deadly pandemics. The Lecture Series will consist of four sessions presented on four successive Sundays beginning 2/14/2021. Each will begin at 7:00 PM and end around 8:30 PM, with a 45-minute lecture followed by an audience-driven Q&A. The Zoomed and recorded lectures, and Q & A sessions will then be posted on the Unitarian Church website.

February 14, 2012. Professor Carol Symes of the Department of History at the University of Illinois will discuss “Historical Perspectives of Pandemics.” Past and recent waves of disease have influenced the cultures of the world, from the Antoine plague that discriminated the Roman army through the Bubonic Plague that re-shaped Europe and the World of the 14th century to our current Covid-19.

February 21.  Professor Ali S Khan, Dean, College of Public Health and Professor of Epidemiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center will discuss “Threats to Global Health and the Role of the World Health Organization.” Current news coverage focuses on local and national issues, but pandemics affect the world. The WHO monitors and coordinates responses to disease outbreaks that threaten to become those deadly pandemics.

February 28. Professor Peter C Angeletti of the Nebraska Center for Virology in the School of Biological Sciences, UN-L will present “Zoonosis of Sars-CoV” explaining the origins of the virus and its transmission. Cultural practices from the “wet markets” of East Asia and “bush meat” in Africa facilitate the transmission of dangerous pathogens from animals to humans.

March 7. Professor Sharon R Stoolman specializes in pediatrics  in the  Division of Hospital Medicine at UN-Med and practices as a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center. She will discuss “Sorting Through Racial Disparities in COVID-19,” emphasizing how the current pandemic affects minority communicates locally and throughout the US.