Kyle Harper last spoke at Fieldstead in 2019, before we had experienced the reality of a world-wide plague. His most recent book, Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History, was begun in 2017 and published in 2021. Timely! On 13 November 2022, Dr. Harper presented a history of plagues and how infectious disease has been a major force throughout the human past.
Kyle Harper is a historian interested in the ways that humanity has shaped nature and vice versa. He holds the G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty and is Professor of Classics and Letters, Senior Advisor to the President, and Provost Emeritus at his alma mater, the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Harper has written four books: Slavery in the Late Roman World, 2011, (James Henry Breasted Prize); From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality, 2013, (Award for Excellence in Historical Studies from the American Academy of Religion); The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire, 2017, (translated into 12 languages); and most recently, Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History, (2021 PROSE winner for best book in the history of science, technology, and medicine.)