Introduction

This book is a compilation of student writing responses for ANTHROP 2U03: Plagues and Peoples at Winter 2025 at McMaster University, taught by Amanda Wissler. In this course, we explore the biological and social impacts of infectious disease, both past and present, with an emphasis on how past epidemics shaped human history, culture, and biology. We examine the sources that historians, demographers, archaeologists, and biologists use to study past epidemics including diaries, newspapers, maps, bills of mortality, art, human remains, architecture, and the bioarchaeological record. Together, we use these sources to understand the individual and collective experience of people who survived, and died from, past epidemics. After spending a semester studying these sources, students were invited to write their own “plague tale” by telling their Covid story. The students chose the title of the book and helped write some of the response questions. They were particularly interested in talking about major life milestones they missed, the impact of Covid and lockdowns on their mental health, and the experience and impacts of virtual schooling. Most of them were between the ages of 14-18 when Covid started in March 2020, living in Canada, and attending high school.

While all students in the course were required to complete the assignment, only those who opted-in have their responses included in this book. The students chose their own chapter titles and whether they wanted to include their name or remain anonymous. The student submissions have been gently edited for spelling, grammar, and clarity and formatted to fit this book by a volunteer team of graduate and undergraduate students from the McMaster Department of Anthropology. The cover art was created by Adriana Toito, a student in the course. The complete assignment Template can be found in the Appendix of this book.

It was a privilege to read these responses. Many of us in higher education in 2025 are grappling with the recent shift in student competency. Compared with five years ago, many undergraduates in North America seem to be struggling with workload, time management, participation, and motivation. Many of us worry about sending students who are unprepared out into the workforce – people who will soon become our doctors, teachers, engineers, lawyers, and writers. University educators and instructors are searching for ways to help our students, but we do not fully know what skills undergraduates lack or how we all got here in the first place. I think the responses contained in this book fill in some of those blanks.

Many of these responses are deeply personal – touching on topics of depression, loneliness, feelings of being left behind, and lack of control. The Covid-19 experience had a profound and permanent impact on all of us, but based on these stories, I think this generation may have been the most affected. These stories are incredibly insightful and self-reflective. They know what they missed out on. Already, these young people realize how lockdown affected them socially and intellectually and are asking questions about how this will affect their futures. They are aware of the life skills they were never forced to learn and had to belatedly (and often painfully) acquire in college. Many of these students also perceive that the astronomical rise of social media in recent years is due to lockdown – where the only human interaction any of them got for over a year was through their phones and technology. Another theme was the keen awareness of the role virtual schooling had on their perceptions and approaches to learning and education. Many of these students were online for two years of their high-school experience. This taught them that learning takes place on a screen, with no personal interaction and a phone in their hand. Nearly all high schools in Canada suspended grading during this period – teaching them that accountability, perseverance through adversity, and learning isn’t important. Most of these young people were between the ages of 14-18 during Covid – the prime period for learning to be independent and manage their obligations. Until reading these stories, it had never occurred to me that during lockdown they were stuck inside with their parents all day. Many comment on the fact that their parents were constantly monitoring their activities and behaviors during lockdown.

I am grateful for the candor and honesty in these responses and the willingness to share personal experiences and opinions. Covid was a notable in that it was something almost all of humanity shared – a rare moment of global unity. Yet, as these stories show, we each had our own, unique experience.

Amanda Wissler