Founding Director William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., Ph.D., appears in the new short film The Fire This Time, which explores the historical links between pandemics and social unrest.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker and artist Mariam Ghani, The Fire This Time weaves together archival and contemporary footage to examine the social reverberations of major pandemics, drawing clear lines to the COVID-19 era. The film contextualizes public health crises as not only biological events, but also as catalysts for political, economic, and social upheaval.
Darity joins a distinguished set of voices, including poet and scholar Anjuli Raza Kolb, science journalist Sonia Shah, and historians Kellie Carter Jackson and Nancy Tomes. These scholars provide insight into how pandemics disproportionately impact the marginalized, and how these moments have shaped the course of economic inequality and institutional response.
Watch the film here: The Fire This Time
