Tara Malanga (Rutgers University) comes on the podcast to discuss her research on colonial Mexico. The conversation begins with a survey of smallpox and the situation in the New World just before Columbus, then examines smallpox after Contact. Tara describes some of the sources and methodology she uses in her research, and describes some of the ways indigenous populations understood the new infectious diseases they encountered, particularly in the sixteenth century. In the post-interview reflection session, Merle and Lee discuss meta level academic research, comparing their own field and discipline to others.
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