The Covid-19 Syllabus
In our second week of Public Seminar's vacation hiatus, some highlights of our pandemic coverage for your syllabus
Photo credit: Uda Fiqur/Wikimedia Commons
In the second of our three syllabi, the editors at Public Seminar highlight a few of the dozens of essays we have published since the Covid-19 pandemic began in late 2019. Go to the site for more!
And please join Public Seminar on Wednesday, August 19 at noon for a conversation with journalist Eric Alterman about his new book: Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie -And Why Trump is Worse (Basic Books, 2020). You can register here.
Featured essays:
Arthur Goldhammer, “The Rebirth of Tragedy: We are all existentialists now, knowing only that we must try to carry on.” (April 28, 2020)
Joshua Lederberg, “Pandemic as a Natural Evolutionary Phenomenon: Human beings forget that they will always share the planet with microbes.” (May 21, 2020)
Sergio Infante, “Time Is Out of Joint: Simultaneity in the epoch of the near and far.” (July 16, 2020)
The syllabus:
R. Drew Smith, “The Hidden Structural Racism in the American Response to Public Health Emergencies: Facing a disproportionate death rate among Black people from COVID-19, President Trump shrugs: `What, me, worry?’” (July 23, 2020)
Russ Castronovo, “According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, We Should All Be Wearing Face Masks.” (July 1, 2020)
Howard Steele, “Fear of Death Amid a Pandemic: Divergent psychoanalytic approaches.” (June 11, 2020)
Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Mark Frazier, “Life and Protest in Hong Kong Amid COVID-19: An Interview with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Author of Vigil: Hong Kong On The Brink.” (March 17, 2020)
Phyllis Dietrichson, “Behind Bars in the Age of Coronavirus: A letter from prison.” (June 18, 2020)
Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer, and Neil Young, “COVID-19 and Protective Face Masks: Past Present Podcast, Episode 217.” (February 25, 2020)
Fred Block, “I, Face Mask: A reconsideration of the classic essay, `I, Pencil.’”
Janet Roitman and Andrew Moon, “Where Is the Risk in the COVID Economy? A look at shadow banking.”
Alissa G. Karl, “Wages Against Essential Work: Our undervaluation of traditionally female work is coming home to roost.” (July 9, 2020)
Tarun José Kattumana, “Understanding the Fear of Vaccines: How to talk about public health in the age of COVID.”