COVID Diaries
April 22, 2020
WPC Montreal Team
Zoom Meeting
Attendees: Alice Ming Wai Jim, Analays Alvarez Hernandez, Varda Nisar, Maya Oppenheimer, Ashley Raghubir
RESEARCH DURING COVID-19: ETHNOGRAPHIES OF THE SELF
Alice: About our research during COVID-19… This is the research. Our group’s research was literally born during COVID-19. The novel human coronavirus disease COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) was officially notified 31 December 2019. The Worlding Public Cultures (WPC) Project started January 1, 2020. There is no way to avoid addressing the impact and implications that this has for our research questions and the project in general. We do want to be able to conduct research during the time of COVID, not surprisingly, precisely on not only (1) how research can be done at all but also (2) what kind of research needs to be done, or can only be done, during a pandemic. For example, I know the things we say now, that we are talking about now, that are being recorded --like our reactions to snow (some for the first time)… and how we would be experiencing it if we were not in lockdown - these kinds of reactions, responses, “affects” if you want to call them that, these can only be recorded, tracked, traced and documented, and expressed now. Right? So, we want to transcribe our conversations and mine them for nuggets of content pretty much right after that fact, so that we can capture the sense… of urgency, our sensibilities… like how my voice is higher than usual… because I am in a state of alertness, a prolonged state of stress. And then there are those expressions that may not be able to be conveyed through transcripts, words, writing. They could be in visual art form or some kind of script, recipe, comfort food -- those shared affects that engage other senses, that can’t really be put into words, but that are felt anyways. And mark this moment we are living through. This is the invaluable research that we can only do now.
Maya: One of the things that I found echoing in my mind while Alice spoke was the potential to experiment with autoethnography: your process of doing research under particular constraints; the imminent, archiving moment that you are in. That sounds like it could be an interesting experiment and one that’s lending care to other researchers and writers and emerging scholars too. I feel that is one of the potential outcomes that could be really supportive for the academic community at this particular time. Our conversations would be a process of autoethnography and archiving of - as you said Alice - the affect and felt experience of navigating constraints.
And that would be super refreshing… anyway!
Varda: My background is not in art history so I don’t know if I am articulating or doing the right thing. But I am slightly not sure how to speak about how things are back home when I am sitting here - that’s my personal concern. Speaking about them, while I’m sitting here [in Montreal]. That is the kind of top down position that I am not into. In fact, I think I could just be writing about that.
On another point, I think if we are talking about worlding art history, would it not be much more grounded if we, as you have been saying, come out of this emergency with a more diachronic picture. For example, how did people respond in 1918 when the Spanish flu hit? How were artists responding to it before any of the calamity? This isn’t the first time something like this is happening, as much as we - we tend to think of it as such. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last time. So it might be interesting to do historical research on how artists were responding to pandemics historically, so that we look at worlding beyond this moment.
(16:08)
Ashley: As an MA student, the program’s period of research is quite concentrated compared to that of a PhD program. I mean, obviously the length and breadth of a MA thesis is different, but I do think it’s interesting for me personally to examine completing a literature review in four months with restricted library access. I am interested in how restricted access to research material will impact my thesis. I am considering the following question: how do I make my research just as meaningful an experience in spite of these obstacles? Because if the restrictions make in-depth research impossible, why am I enrolled in the summer term?
As someone thinking of applying to PhD programs in the next year or two, how can that still be a meaningful experience?
(21:10):
Analays: Sometimes I write about Cuban Art, about the Cuban situation. But I am speaking from here, and I live here… and I want to put this in relation as well… When I am in Cuba, or when I was in Cuba, I didn’t see myself as Latin American, whatsoever. It was when I came here, stayed here that you know I started assuming that identity. And a lot of people think I can… that I know the true about... the truth about what happens in Cuba and the situation, and I do not, at all, not really.I have been trying to reconnect with that… with the Cuban art scene in the last few months and even when I try to, when I go there Cubans look at me as a stranger, as a tourist, as someone who does not belong anymore to that context, and it's really hard for me to get access to the information that I want. And… when I come back here things are perceived differently… I mean I am talking about ... the position... from here I am aCuban art specialist… but when I go there I am not (anymore)... I mean I don’t… they think that… I… know nothing about the context anymore. So, it’s kind of… a very strange position, writing from here …about a different reality...that I used to be part of, or immersed in it.
WPC Montreal Team
Zoom Meeting
Attendees: Alice Ming Wai Jim, Analays Alvarez Hernandez, Varda Nisar, Maya Oppenheimer, Ashley Raghubir
RESEARCH DURING COVID-19: ETHNOGRAPHIES OF THE SELF
Alice: About our research during COVID-19… This is the research. Our group’s research was literally born during COVID-19. The novel human coronavirus disease COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) was officially notified 31 December 2019. The Worlding Public Cultures (WPC) Project started January 1, 2020. There is no way to avoid addressing the impact and implications that this has for our research questions and the project in general. We do want to be able to conduct research during the time of COVID, not surprisingly, precisely on not only (1) how research can be done at all but also (2) what kind of research needs to be done, or can only be done, during a pandemic. For example, I know the things we say now, that we are talking about now, that are being recorded --like our reactions to snow (some for the first time)… and how we would be experiencing it if we were not in lockdown - these kinds of reactions, responses, “affects” if you want to call them that, these can only be recorded, tracked, traced and documented, and expressed now. Right? So, we want to transcribe our conversations and mine them for nuggets of content pretty much right after that fact, so that we can capture the sense… of urgency, our sensibilities… like how my voice is higher than usual… because I am in a state of alertness, a prolonged state of stress. And then there are those expressions that may not be able to be conveyed through transcripts, words, writing. They could be in visual art form or some kind of script, recipe, comfort food -- those shared affects that engage other senses, that can’t really be put into words, but that are felt anyways. And mark this moment we are living through. This is the invaluable research that we can only do now.
Maya: One of the things that I found echoing in my mind while Alice spoke was the potential to experiment with autoethnography: your process of doing research under particular constraints; the imminent, archiving moment that you are in. That sounds like it could be an interesting experiment and one that’s lending care to other researchers and writers and emerging scholars too. I feel that is one of the potential outcomes that could be really supportive for the academic community at this particular time. Our conversations would be a process of autoethnography and archiving of - as you said Alice - the affect and felt experience of navigating constraints.
And that would be super refreshing… anyway!
Varda: My background is not in art history so I don’t know if I am articulating or doing the right thing. But I am slightly not sure how to speak about how things are back home when I am sitting here - that’s my personal concern. Speaking about them, while I’m sitting here [in Montreal]. That is the kind of top down position that I am not into. In fact, I think I could just be writing about that.
On another point, I think if we are talking about worlding art history, would it not be much more grounded if we, as you have been saying, come out of this emergency with a more diachronic picture. For example, how did people respond in 1918 when the Spanish flu hit? How were artists responding to it before any of the calamity? This isn’t the first time something like this is happening, as much as we - we tend to think of it as such. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last time. So it might be interesting to do historical research on how artists were responding to pandemics historically, so that we look at worlding beyond this moment.
(16:08)
Ashley: As an MA student, the program’s period of research is quite concentrated compared to that of a PhD program. I mean, obviously the length and breadth of a MA thesis is different, but I do think it’s interesting for me personally to examine completing a literature review in four months with restricted library access. I am interested in how restricted access to research material will impact my thesis. I am considering the following question: how do I make my research just as meaningful an experience in spite of these obstacles? Because if the restrictions make in-depth research impossible, why am I enrolled in the summer term?
As someone thinking of applying to PhD programs in the next year or two, how can that still be a meaningful experience?
(21:10):
Analays: Sometimes I write about Cuban Art, about the Cuban situation. But I am speaking from here, and I live here… and I want to put this in relation as well… When I am in Cuba, or when I was in Cuba, I didn’t see myself as Latin American, whatsoever. It was when I came here, stayed here that you know I started assuming that identity. And a lot of people think I can… that I know the true about... the truth about what happens in Cuba and the situation, and I do not, at all, not really.I have been trying to reconnect with that… with the Cuban art scene in the last few months and even when I try to, when I go there Cubans look at me as a stranger, as a tourist, as someone who does not belong anymore to that context, and it's really hard for me to get access to the information that I want. And… when I come back here things are perceived differently… I mean I am talking about ... the position... from here I am aCuban art specialist… but when I go there I am not (anymore)... I mean I don’t… they think that… I… know nothing about the context anymore. So, it’s kind of… a very strange position, writing from here …about a different reality...that I used to be part of, or immersed in it.