As a Beinecke Library Fellow, Sara Doan, Assistant Professor of Experience Architecture at Michigan State University, spent two weeks immersed in the archives of Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, uncovering materials to inform her forthcoming book, Visualizing Pandemics: A History of Data in Action, that focuses on public health communication and the history of persuasion during disease outbreaks.

More specifically, her research examines the rhetorical role of data visualizations in public health messaging, tracing how charts, graphs, and maps have been used to shape public understanding and influence governmental responses to crises. She is looking at patterns throughout history and the influence made by such factors as credibility, timing, emotional appeals, design, and shifts in scientific theory.

“The central question of the book is how do we persuade people to take action,” Doan said.