Experts take on zombie apocalypse during panel discussion at Jacksonville University

The zombies didn't bite, and they were considerate enough to stay away from the hors d'oeuvres in the corner.

They were even well trained, like the zombies at the end of "Shaun of the Dead:" One stood by the double doors and handed out pamphlets to new arrivals, which was helpful though a bit creepy, what with her vacant eyes and pallid complexion and that mouth hanging wide open.

The pamphlets were for "The Walking Dread," a panel discussion at Jacksonville University on Tuesday night that linked the public's obsession with the fictional undead to very real trends in culture and society.

For the most part, the points were made, though none of the five professors who spoke claimed to be huge fans of zombies or their signature TV show, AMC's "The Walking Dead," which gave the discussion its name.

It was the fifth annual cross-disciplinary event put on by JU's College of Arts and Sciences. Last year's was on the nature of truth. It apparently didn't have zombies.

This one did, and drew well more than 100 people to the Terry Concert Hall for a couple of hours of talking about the living dead.

The zombie apocalypse is a worthy topic: Douglas Hazzard, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, kicked off the night by noting that "plagues have played a foundational role" in the history of the Americas - starting with the diseases inadvertently brought along by colonists that wiped out most of the continents' original inhabitants.

Assistant professor of English Ed McCourt then showed how "The Walking Dead," easily the highest rated show in the history of basic cable, is quite a cultural phenomenon.

With its fearsome zombies ready to pounce on a few still-breathing survivors, it's even been linked to higher gun sales, he said. Remington, meanwhile, makes a shotgun called the "887 Zombie Tactical," and you can, if you wish, buy for yourself a Zombie Killer Machete (it's available on Amazon). Zombie Industries, meanwhile, is happy to provide you with zombie targets that bleed and explode when you hit them.

McCourt said zombies can be seen as a metaphor for a number of things. What were the Nazi zombies in Norway's "Dead Snow," after all, if not a symbol of European fears of a neo-Nazi resurgence?

And is that big a stretch to see zombies in those hordes of people who shuffle along campus walkways and city sidewalks, shut out from the world by their ear buds and the glowing smart phones in their hands?

No, not really.

He was followed by Rose Borkowski, an assistant professor of biology and marine science who showed how African sleeping sickness and rabies can lead to some zombie-like symptoms - and a horrific death.

Andy Ouellette, also an assistant professor in theBiology and Marine Science department, then gave a spirited presentation on "From Yellow Fever to Ebola: Disease and Fear Mongering."

"People have feared diseases and plagues for as long as, well, there have been diseases and plagues," he said.

Jacksonville went through that fear in 1888, when refugees fleeing the killer yellow fever plague were turned away at the boundaries of other towns. They were the "walking dread" of that time, he said, as were those suffering from AIDS in the next century.

That kind of fear is still with us, Ouellette said. And so is fear mongering: Just look, he said, at the unnecessary alarms raised over the handful of cases of Ebola in the United States last fall. Then, he said, there's the current fuss linking childhood vaccinations and autism - a link that's never been proven.

Still, some persist in misrepresenting science, he said: Thus we have a 20-year high in measles and a 50-year high in whooping cough.

Sarah Parker, an assistant professor of English, spoke of a 16th-century epic poem, written in Latin, about a syphilis plague. It became a best-seller in several countries.

"They didn't quite have the zombie thing going on then," she pointed out.

Just imagine if they did. The syphilis poem wouldn't have stood a chance.

Keith Saliba closed the event by focusing on the slick social-media campaigns that have attracted people from almost 90 countries to join the extremists in ISIS and other radical groups.

In these cases, the ideology is the pathology, said Saliba, an assistant professor of communications. And that virtual virus can spread quickly on the internet, even faster than a real virus - or even a zombie virus - could spread from airport to airport.

Out in the lobby, meanwhile, zombie Tresa Landa broke character just long enough to mention that she and the other undead were members of downtown's Midnight Espresso Troupe, a "live-action role-playing troupe" that takes on all manner of roles.

Look for them at the next One Spark festival. They'll be the ones who are dead, yet still walking.

Matt Soergel: (904) 359-4082