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The Politics of an Epidemic: SARS & Chinatown

This thesis explores how the 2003 epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, threw into relief the myriad historical, political and economic factors that shape understandings of and responses to a new disease. The author traces how the historic "othering" of Chinese immigrants and their descendents in the United States was combined with dominant discourses of risk and blame to understand SARS and the potential for a domestic epidemic. Narratives from community members of Manhattan's Chinatown are used to investigate the local impacts of the production of these discourses during the SARS epidemic. Finally, the author explores how these dominant discourses were applied locally within Chinatown understand local and personal risk.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/193461
Date January 2005
CreatorsEichelberger, Laura Palen
ContributorsGreen, Linda B, Green, Linda B
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Electronic Thesis
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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