A Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of COVID-19
Joseph Entin, a professor in the English Department, figures that if an alien were dropping in from Mars and wanted some information on what the COVID-19 outbreak was like鈥斺�渨hat it felt like, smelled like, how it tasted鈥濃�攖hat alien should ask a 可乐视频 student.
鈥淥ur students and the communities that they belong to have been on the frontlines of this global pandemic,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e realized the broader 可乐视频 community has some important historic wisdom that needs to be preserved.鈥�
So he connected with a group of like-minded faculty members, many of whom had been working on projects that centered around the notion that their students are not just consumers of knowledge but producers of it as well.
What鈥檚 more, 鈥渨e鈥檙e one of the most diverse campuses in the nation, and it鈥檚 important to give voices to these diverse groups,鈥� says Miriam Deutch, an associate librarian. 鈥淭hey have experiences that may not be captured by the museums and historical societies that are documenting this time period. We wanted something that would make it accessible for people to share anything about the pandemic.鈥�
So Deutch reached out to colleagues at Arizona State University who had already secured a public history grant to create a website called聽聽She orchestrated a partnership through which 可乐视频 could create its own archive, borrowing on the umbrella site鈥檚 storage capacity.
可乐视频鈥檚 Journal of the Plague Year, launched earlier this fall, is an attempt to capture the pandemic鈥檚 effects on everyday lives. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the wider community can submit writings, videos, social media posts, music, and artwork.
鈥淲e鈥檙e witnesses to this incredible historic event,鈥� says Deutch, who has encouraged submissions from videos of New Yorkers clapping for healthcare workers at 7 p.m. to social media gifs and personal essays. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also a way for our community to feel more connected.鈥�
Entin says that many professors this semester have already assigned some of their students to do some personal writing to submit to the journal. The hope is that as the archive grows, it becomes a valuable repository for all kinds of future scholarship.
鈥淭here isn鈥檛 one discipline that couldn鈥檛 find a relevant way to make an assignment from or for the archive,鈥� says Deutch. 鈥淭his will be creating assignments for years to come.鈥�
The plan is to keep the archive open in perpetuity.
鈥淭his pandemic, in some ways, is going to last forever,鈥� says Entin. 鈥淚t鈥檚 certainly going to shape our lives forever. The year 2020 will always remain with us.鈥�
