Risk and the COVID-19 pandemic discussed online by Ā鶹Pornās humanities institute
Contact: John Burrow
STARKVILLE, Miss.āA Ā鶹Porn faculty member currently quarantined in Germany will provide expert evaluation of the intersection of COVID-19 and the human perspective of risk during a live interview via Facebook this Thursday [May 14].
Davide Orsini, an assistant professor in Ā鶹Pornās Department of History, will offer his perspectives on risk, how governments and people have historically handled risk, and the problems associated with risk management during the COVID-19 pandemic during an 11 a.m. interview with Julia Osman, director of Ā鶹Pornās Institute for the Humanities and associate professor of history.
The online discussion will be featured via theĀ .
āDr. Orsini is Italian by nationality, but he has lived and worked in the United States for the last several years, and is currently riding out the virus in Germany,ā said Osman. āIām eager to see what his international experiences can tell us about how the U.S. is handling the virusāboth officially and individuallyāin comparison to other countries.āĀ
āI am especially interested in talking to Dr. Orsini because, while there have always been risks associated with everything we do, the virus is forcing us to revisit how we think of the risks weāre taking,ā Osman said. āItās difficult when we hear confusing information or when we see other countries or states do things differently.ā
Orsiniās research is focused on intersections of science and technology studies, nuclear studies, environmental history and anthropology, and the history of empires, with a global historical approach to modern Europeāespecially the Mediterranean areaāand the U.S.
āOne of my research interests can be condensed in the following question: How do we deal with invisible risks?ā said Orsini. āOne of the problems with SARS-CoV 2 is that the virus is invisible and the time of incubation in individuals is of 14 days on average. We start getting quite wary of other people, especially strangers, when they get too close to us. So, how do we understand and cope with risk now?
āI hope that during the interview a more nuanced view of how experts and non-experts understand the risksāboth personal and collectiveāof the current pandemic will emerge,ā said Orsini. āIn particular, I would like to offer some perspective on why and how different individuals, groups, expert communities, and governments understand and face risk differently. Why do some people react to this pandemic by taking risks, like going grocery shopping without masks or distancing from other clients? Why do some governments decide to reopen economic activities while others decide to adopt more precautionary measures?ā
Orsini said one of the main lessons he takes from studying the history of risk is that risk is not an āabsolutely objectiveā category, but rather that risk assessment is an activity requiring expertise. āBut different experts have different approaches to calculating risks,ā Orsini said.
āUnderstandings of risk are also highly contextual,ā he said. āThey depend on cultural values and political opportunities.ā Orsini stressed the importance of finding āgood, reliable informationā which ārequires effort, and right now we are also in the middle of what communication experts call āinfodemia.ā We need to critically evaluate what political authorities decide to do on the basis of what expert authorities recommend.ā
Orsini earned his bachelorās and masterās degrees at the University of Siena, Italy, and his Ph.D. and a graduate certificate in Science, Technology, and Society from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He currently is finalizing a manuscript analyzing the political, ecological and public health controversies following the installation of a U.S. Navy base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena (Sardinia) between 1972 and 2008.
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