23/03/20
 
About this blog
„Witnessing Corona“ is inviting contributions of max 2000 words that address questions of: – Social solidarity and moral blaming – Living a life in social and/or physical isolation – Unequal biosocial and/or psychological vulnerabilities – Political-economic implications for healthcare infrastructures – Historically contingent forms, possibilities, and risks of governmental intervention – And a host of […]

22/05/20
#StayAwake in the Time of Pandemic
A Case of Anti-Government Protests in Slovenia
Almost every Saturday afternoon in the past two months, the so called ‘Hygiene-Demo’ takes place at the Rosa Luxemburg Platz in Berlin, where up to thousand people gather. According to local media, the participants protest against the ongoing lockdown measures decreed by the federal states to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus (Der Tagesspiegel 2020). […]

21/05/20
Learning Medical Anthropology through the Coronavirus
5 Student Essays from Copenhagen
Teaching “Introduction into Medical Anthropology” in the Midst of an Unfolding Pandemic By Anna Mann   At the Department of Anthropology in Copenhagen, like in many other places, a course „Introduction into Medical Anthropology“ started at beginning of February. Each Friday, we, a group of engaged BA and MA students and one lecturer, met to […]

20/05/20
Why Can’t I Walk Your Dog?
Not Accepting Help as a Coping Strategy During the Swiss Lockdown
“Et nous souhaitons ici lancer un appel à l’ensemble de la population et notamment un appel aussi aux personnes âgées et vulnérables: Restez à la maison pour protéger votre santé. Évitez autant que possible les contacts avec d’autres personnes”[1] (Alain Berset, Swiss health minister, press conference of the Swiss Federal Counsil, 16/03/2020). In the first […]

18/05/20
What COVID-19 Reveals about Borders and Citizenship
Europe’s Migrants on Their Way Back Home
Travel restrictions became a global response to combat the spread of COVID-19. According to an analysis from April 2020 at least 93 percent of the global population live in countries with coronavirus-related travel restrictions. Nearly half of that proportion – some 3 billion people in all – are in countries that are almost completely closed […]

15/05/20
Wenn aus Tätern Opfer werden
Freilassung von Gefangenen wegen des Coronavirus in Argentinien
SARS-CoV-2 hat die gesamte Welt in einen Ausnahmezustand versetzt. Jeden Tag geschieht etwas Neues, Unvorhersehbares, worauf die Menschen reagieren müssen. Die Regierungen der Länder und ihr Krisenmanagement werden auf die Probe gestellt. Oftmals treffen sie Entscheidungen, die nicht von allen für gut geheißen werden, ja, sogar moralisch fragwürdig sind. Seit Ende Februar bin ich in […]

14/05/20
Versatile Houses and Flexible Bodies in Times of Coronavirus in Buenos Aires
We’re social scientists. We study practices and imaginaries around the body and the spaces that urban middle sectors inhabit. Isolation brought back questions and we returned to our fieldwork[1]: What becomes visible in this new context? How do we experience and articulate our bodies in our homes? First, the suggested confinement and then, the mandatory […]

13/05/20
Teaching in the Times of Corona
Structural Inequalities and the Limitations of Online Pedagogy in North East India
The COVID-19 pandemic has gravitated a shift in teaching practices across the world. The fear of contagion and the necessity of social distancing have rendered traditional classroom teaching impossible. Over the last two months, the higher education sector has shifted from the classrooms and campuses to online conferencing applications and discussion forums. Teachers, taking the […]

12/05/20
Paris, a Deserted – Quiet City?
Impressions from France
The Covid-19 epidemic has changed everyday life in Paris dramatically. More so, during the last month since the government announced that France entered the 3rd phase of the epidemic (defined as “sporadic cases or small clusters of disease in humans. Human-to-human transmission, if any, is insufficient to cause community-level outbreaks”) (Pandemics WebMD Medical Reference 2020: 1) […]

11/05/20
“We Cannot Afford to Take Any Risks”
Refugees in Indonesia under Self-Isolation amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
Refugees in Indonesia are stuck in “troubled transit” (Missbach 2015), hoping for resettlement, living in a constant state of uncertainty. Their ‘refugee’ identities are defined by their past traumas and search for a future home. In their present state of indefinite ‘transit’ in Indonesia, they try to adapt by developing a sense of community, setting […]

08/05/20
Limiting Life for an Unlimited Time
A Student’s Perspective
‘It feels like we are in a puzzle. But there are missing pieces, so there is no way to see the whole picture yet. I guess they just forgot to put them in the package’ (a friend, March 2020).   The fear of loose ends Student lives usually have to be quite flexible. We change […]