From the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920 to the Covid-19 pandemic, and from the appearance of HIV/AIDS in queer communities to its spread in Africa, the world's disease crises have been inflamed by colonialism, imperialism, and other structural forms of exploitation and dispossession. This course asks: What is the connection between seemingly interruptive global health crises and our everyday normal? By engaging with novels, long-form journalism, and other stories of global crises, we will grapple with the possibility that, far from averting disaster, capitalism and the legal structures that support it create the conditions for crises to thrive. We will investigate the failures of public response but also the heroic actions of individuals fighting for life. Students will learn to connect individual experience to broad structural explanations and to analyze historical moments to better understand our present and the shared forces that shape our lives.