Readings in the history of Pandemic

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2018.1484740

The article linked above has a number of articles LINKED to it that you may find useful in your writing. Use this article as your research library. You should use at least one of these linked articles in your final paper.

Here is the alternative final assignment again.

Ethnographic Analysis of the Corona Virus: Participant Observation and Social Distancing

Participant observation becomes a challenge in situations of quarantine and social distancing. However, there are many resources which may be observed from afar. The final assignment will require that you do what all ethnographers do…be FLEXIBLE and study the ethnographic phenomena which present themselves to you: the cultural response to the COVID-19 virus. Your fieldsite will be the following:
·      Social media
·      Media (television news sources, talk shows, any non-fictional broadcast)
·      Online forums
·      Yourself, social interactions with family and friends

Your research will require some academic foundations for analysis:
Read:
·      Susan Sontag’s essay, Illness as Metaphor/AIDS as Metaphor (can purchase this very inexpensively online or go to almost any library to copy). Read the first two essays.
o   Upon returning from Spring Break, we will discuss these essays in some online forum to TBD and will have a summary of the essays on our class blog
o   These essays provide a strong theoretical foundation for understanding the symbolic meaning of illnesses, epidemics and plagues and the cultural responses to them
·      Paul Farmer: Infectious Inequalities, I will be distributing a section of Farmer’s longer work, or some other similar writing for your required reading. (Making a PDF and attaching it to the BLACKBOARD module for this class ASAP).
o   Upon returning from Spring Break, we will discuss this essay in some online forum to TBD and will have a summary of the essays on our class blog
o   This reading will provide a theoretical and analytical framework for understanding the threat of illnesses, and the socioeconomic aspects of illness and it’s impacts on communities and individuals from an anthropological perspective.
·      https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2018.1484740
o   Upon returning from Spring Break, we will discuss this essay in some online forum to TBD and will have a summary of the essays on our class blog
o   This reading provides some historical perspective on cultural responses to pandemics. It’s really good.
This article is your RESEARCH LIBRARY for your paper

Immediately begin to observe conversations about the COVID-19 virus in the various formats listed above. Take fieldnotes on the following and record them on a word document so that they can be shared with me.
·      Record informants’ voices just as if you were recording them in an interview
·      Look for themes
·      Read the materials as soon as possible
·      Structure a focus for your final papers. Papers will be substantial (10-15 pages) since there should be lots of fodder for your analysis by talking heads on the news (watch various perspectives-FOX, MSNBC, CNN, local news, comedy shows, talk shows, late night commentary, radio, social media posts and comments)
·      Possible focal points
o   Fear and anxiety in response to pandemic
o   Plagues and memory (I know my friends who survived HIV/AIDS are being triggered in different ways and making interpretations based on this experience)
o   Xenophibia, stigma and stereotyping the “other”
o   The role of inequality/highlighting healthcare inequality
o   Politics and illness
o   The impact of social media on cultural reactions to epidemic illness
o   Etc.
·      Analytical foundations will be used to comment on your data as well as help you theme your papers.

We will be meeting remotely (detail to follow) to help each other along with this process. I gather from your responses to my email, that you are very much in favor of this option, and I welcome your continued input.

Let’s disregard the ASSIGNMENT THAT WAS DUE after break and get on this, ASAP. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we get the opportunity to be real anthropologists.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Susan Sontag: Illness as Metaphor, AIDS as Metaphor

In 1978 Susan Sontag wrote  Illness as Metaphor , a classic work described by  Newsweek  as "one of the most liberating books of its time." A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, Sontag shows  how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is -- just a disease.  Cancer, she argues, is not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment  and, it is highly curable, if good treatment is followed. "Susan Sontag's  Illness as Metaphor  was the  first to point out the accusatory side of the metaphors of empowerment that seek to enlist the patient's will to resist disease.  It is largely as a result of her work that the how-to health books avoid the blame-ridden term  'cancer personality'  and speak more soothingly of  'disea
Read more

Reconciling Street Vendors and Pedestrians (READ)

Image
The Big Question: How Can We Reconcile Street Vending With Pedestrian-Friendly Sidewalks? Accra, Bangkok, Chennai, Lima, Manila, Nairobi | 04/01/2013 1:01pm INFORMAL CITY DIALOGUES They’re a critical pillar of the informal economy, but as street vendors multiply, the amount of sidewalk space available for pedestrians is shrinking. The issue of how to make room for such vendors — if at all — is becoming an urgent and controversial issue that cities must face. Below, three perspectives on how to equitably share the pavement. THE CITY OF THE FUTURE WILL BE A “MARKET CITY” BY ETHAN KENT How can cities keep their sidewalks pedestrian-friendly while still allowing informal street vendors to make a living? The negative perception of informal vending is an issue that plagues cities everywhere, but the successful integration of such vendors can add to the lifeblood of a thriving city. Unfortunately, many cities don’t have a vision of a positive role for vending. Around the wo
Read more

Naomi Klein on Corona Virua

The coronavirus is officially a global pandemic that has so far infected 10 times more people than SARS did. Schools, university systems, museums, and theaters across the U.S. are shutting down, and soon, entire cities may be too. Experts warn that some people who suspect they may be sick with the virus, also known as COVID-19, are going about their daily routines, either because their jobs do not provide paid time off because of systemic failures in our privatized health care system These are the perfect conditions for governments and the global elite to implement political agendas that would otherwise be met with great opposition if we weren’t all so disoriented. This chain of events isn’t unique to the crisis sparked by the coronavirus; it’s the blueprint politicians and governments have been following for decades known as the “shock doctrine,” a term coined by activist and author Naomi Klein in a  2007 book   of the same name. History is a chronicle of “shocks”—the s
Read more