This year’s Heritage Fair will be an online event, hosted by the London Heritage Council, with support from the City of London’s Culture Office. The event will go live on Facebook on Feb. 11 from 7-9 p.m.
“Culture Shock! The Impact of Pandemics” will bring together six local panelists, consisting of medical professionals and historians. The panel will answer questions submitted by Londoners about the effects of the pandemic on culture.
What does the future look like post-COVID? How will our culture adapt and change?
Heritage Council Operations Manager, Dhira Ghosh said there is some comfort in looking to the past for answers during tumultuous times.
“Obviously the pandemic is on everyone’s mind this year and it just seemed like a fit for us to do something about that,” she said. “When we did a little more digging into that theme we realized that past pandemics could kind of lead us or give us some answers that people are probably asking themselves right now.”
The panel will discuss how events like the Black Death and the Spanish Influenza shaped the world around them, and what life looked like when the worst had passed.
“The Spanish Flu is a great indicator, because right after that the roaring twenties came,” said Ghosh. “So there is a lot that we can learn and take solace from.”
How will the iconic imagery of pandemics-past stack up against our memories of COVID-19?
Ghosh said the majority of questions she has received have been about what the next chapter of humanity will look like. We understand the pandemic, but what comes next? She hopes the panel will be able to address these concerns.
“Sometimes we have to look back to look forward,” she said. “We can take some of the stuff that has happened and know how best to move forward, or as people say, what comes after this?”
Students in particular will benefit from attending the fair, according to Ghosh.
“It’s very important that the younger generation kind of takes some knowledge from how people in the past have handled a pandemic who were young at the time when the pandemic came,” she said. “What did they do to look forward?”
There is still time to submit questions for the panel. The panel will be made up of the following experts:
- Hilary Bates Neary, Local Historian
- Dr. Anisha Datta, Associate Professor, Sociology, King’s University College at Western University
- David Marskell, CEO, THEMUSEUM
- Dr. Vivian McAlister, Surgeon, University Hospital London, Professor, Surgery, Western University, Officer of the Order of Canada
- Dr. Shelley McKellar, Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry & Professor, History, Western University
- Dr. Jonathan Vance, Professor and Undergraduate Chair, History, Western University
“I think I’m excited to hear all of them because they’re all axperts in their fields and they’re all talking about a different topic,” said Ghosh of the panel.
It might feel as though we are living through a moment in history right now. For better or for worse, pandemics continue to shape our culture, and the answer to what comes next may just be found by looking back.
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