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Jerash plague

Faculty joins project to rewrite history of plague

Maroulis Professor of Byzantine History, Michael Decker, is at the center of a groundbreaking discovery. An interdisciplinary team from USF and FAU has uncovered the first genomic proof that Yersinia pestis, the plague bacterium, was present in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Plague of Justinian (AD 541–750).

History professor David Johnson decided it was time to take the stories in the University of South Florida's collection and share them with the public.

Kyle Burke, a USF history professor, who studies and teaches U.S. foreign relations for nearly two decades, has seen the U.S. enter multiple Middle Eastern conflicts, such as Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. Still, he said he wasn’t surprised when he saw the U.S. enter another in June.