Historicising the nexus between transportation and pandemics with reference to major pandemics of the world

Abstract

Though the world has witnessed many pandemics so far, this article historicizes the nexus between transportation and pandemics by taking four major pandemics human history has faced so far as representatives. Historically, the means of transportation are rapidly changing; from legs being the only kings on our streets to the fastest trains and aeroplanes, which have not only altered the world scenario but also have worked as the fastest vectors of pathogens. In this research, we have taken the ancient pandemic of Antonine Plague, the fourteenth-century pandemic of Black Death, the twentieth-century pandemic of Spanish Flu, and the most recent as well as the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 as the representative pandemics the human civilization has faced, and we have analyzed them in conversation with some insights from globalization vis-à-vis transportation and pandemics and some discourses from kinesthetic rhetoric keeping the issues of health and medicine in consideration. Our article concludes that with ever-growing means of transportation, it does not take a long time for a disease to become a pandemic. Therefore, it is an urgent call for human beings to understand the material persuasion of vehicular technologies and to work accordingly.

Keywords:

• Black death
• Covid-19
• globalization
• pandemic
• pathogen
• transportation
• kinesthetic rhetoric

Reviewing Editor:

• Samuel Adu-Gyamfi, History and Political Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology College of Arts and Social Science, Kumasi, Ashanti, Ghana

Subjects:

• Technology; Anthropology - Soc Sci; Sociology & Social Policy; History; Cultural Studies

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heena Shrestha

Heena Shrestha completed her Master’s degree in English literature from Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. As a freelance researcher, her research interests include language, literature, and cultural studies.

Raj K. Baral*

Raj Kumar Baral is an Assistant Professor at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. His research interests include non-western rhetoric, literature and language, academic integrity, cultural studies, online learning, and higher education/policy. He has been published in Distance Education, Cogent Arts and Humanities, Journal of Academic Ethics among others. Currently, is pursuing PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso, USA.