Pangolins, human/animal encounter & covid-19 by Sujit Sivasundaram

We are delighted to welcome Sujit Sivasundaram, Professor of World History from the University of Cambridge for this talk which will be held in person and also livestreamed from the Museum of Zoology.  

The origins of the covid-19 pandemic go far beyond China and much further back than 2019, involving human interactions with animals in a variety of settings, including in Europe. In this talk, historian Sujit Sivasundaram will consider human relations with pangolins, the scaly mammals which came to greater attention during the pandemic, to understand the historical conditions in which the virus could jump between species. He will also place this story in the context of colonialism, capitalism and globalisation; and consider what Indigenous peoples can tell us about pangolins in South Asia and what another way of living with pangolins, and all animals, may look like.

Following the talk the Museum's Director, Professor Rebecca Kilner, will host an "In Conversation" with Sujit.

This talk is part of the University of Cambridge Museums Power and Memory series. Join us for events, displays, workshops, and community-led discussions confronting Cambridge’s colonial story.

Sujit Sivasundaram is Professor of World History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. He is a leading historian specialising in world history, especially the Pacific and Indian oceans and their islands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and also environmental history, the history of race, imperial history and history of science. His third book, Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire was awarded the British Academy Book Prize in 2021 and the Bentley Book Prize for World History in 2022.

This is a hybrid event: you can attend in-person at the Museum, or online via Zoom.

For the booking links please go to our website