The defining experiences of COVID-19 have raised new questions about how we approach the study of emotions—such as which emotional expressions are socially valued and whether shared emotional experiences can transcend social, cultural, or temporal divides—and the practical applications of such studies in rebuilding our post-pandemic world. Events over the past two years have called upon us to rethink many of our long-held assumptions, while the pandemic itself has starkly demonstrated ongoing social inequalities and the insidious legacies of settler colonialism and white supremacy.
How can we—as an open community of scholars, teachers, archivists, social workers, and practitioners—learn from these experiences and from each other in transformative transdisciplinary ways? How can such dialogues reframe existing discussions around the history of the emotions and our responses to trauma? Moreover, how can the study of peoples’ responses to traumatic events before 1800 help guide our own experience of the pandemic?
Processing the Pandemic will attempt to trace new pathways to answer these questions. This hybrid event, the first in a multi-year series of seminars and symposia, will focus on the theme of Loss. Through roundtable discussions, collection presentations, and workshops, this program will explore how scholars, students, and professionals may use the experience of and responses to significant loss before 1800 to chart our own path towards a post-COVID-19 world.
Information about this virtual event
This series is co-sponsored by D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library and the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick
Location and Address
Online