Ben Reilly, associate teaching professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), shared his research at the Qatar Faculty Forum on October 8. The forum is Qatar Foundation’s regular academic seminar series for the liberal arts and sciences, and Reilly is the Carnegie Mellon representative on the steering committee.

Reilly’s presentation examined how the risk of malaria affected travel to Rome in the years 1400 to 1850. As he outlined, Rome lies within the northern extent of the deadliest strain of malaria, and also within the range of one of Europe’s most anthropophilic, or human-preferring, mosquito species. Malaria is transmitted through mosquitos who have previously bitten an infected person, and without treatment, there is a 50 percent fatality rate. His research, which will be published in the Winter 2019 issue of Journal of Interdisciplinary History, posits that the threat of malaria appears to have curtailed travel in the dangerous summer months.

Jörg Matthias Determann from VCUarts Qatar also spoke at the forum on his investigation into the depiction of extraterrestrials in science fiction in the Muslim world. The Qatar Faculty Forum meets once a month during the academic year. This semester, the forum will meet at Texas A&M University at Qatar.