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Being Human during COVID

Kristin Ann Hass, Editor

Open Access

Science has taken center stage during the COVID-19 crisis; scientists named and diagnosed the virus, traced its spread, and worked together to create a vaccine in record time. But while science made the headlines, the arts and humanities were critical in people's daily lives. As the world went into lockdown, literature, music, and media became crucial means of connection, and historians reminded us of the resonance of the past as many of us heard for the first time about the 1918 influenza pandemic. As the twindemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice tore through the United States, a contested presidential race unfolded, which one candidate described as "a battle for the soul of the nation."

Being Human during COVID documents the first year of the pandemic in real time, bringing together humanities scholars from the University of Michigan to address what it feels like to be human during the COVID-19 crisis. Over the course of the pandemic, the questions that occupy the humanities—about grieving and publics, the social contract and individual rights, racial formation and xenophobia, ideas of home and conceptions of gender, narrative and representations and power—have become shared life-or-death questions about how human societies work and how culture determines our collective fate. The contributors in this collection draw on scholarly expertise and lived experience to try to make sense of the unfamiliar present in works that range from traditional scholarly essays, to personal essays, to visual art projects. The resulting book is shot through with fear, dread, frustration, and prejudice, and, on a few occasions, with a thrilling sense of hope.

Citable Link

Published: 2021

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

License:

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license

ISBN(s)

978-0-472-03878-7 (paper)
978-0-472-90250-7 (open access)

Subject

Resources

monument to euripides

From COVID Diary: Hands, Nets, and Other Devices

at sea

From COVID Diary: Hands, Nets, and Other Devices

something like a firefly

From COVID Diary: Hands, Nets, and Other Devices

something on wheels

From COVID Diary: Hands, Nets, and Other Devices

no place left called home

From COVID Diary: Hands, Nets, and Other Devices

Shadows: Social Distances in Between

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

A collage of colorful images showing shadows of three women in Sudan, United States, and Saudi Arabia. It also shows clouds moving in between, a doctor wearing COVID-19 protective face shield, and a thank you sign for health workers.

Shadows: Living in Between

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

Figure 8.1. Shadows: Living in Between Image 1: Shadows, Walking in Between, Ann Arbor, USA; Image 2: Bridging Clouds, Khartoum, Sudan (Photo courtesy of Shereen M. Omer, used here with her permission); Image 3: Shadows, Walking in Between, Khartoum, Sudan (Photo courtesy of Shereen M. Omer, used here with her permission); Image 4: The View from Pauline Boulevard: Thank You Healthcare Workers; Image 5: Virtual Closeness during a Pandemic (Photo courtesy of Ihsan Hassan Fadlalla, used here with her permission).

A collage of four colorful images showing a female figure (the author) walking, wearing an African-print bandana face mask, and carrying a purse around her waist. In the first image a clover flower is attached to the front of the purse. In the second image is the Washtenaw Diary Ice Cream shop, in Ann Arbor, with customers outside, wearing masks and socially distanced. In the third image appears the female figure walking with trefoil flowers attached to the front of her purse. The last image marks the end of the walk and shows a sidewalk with the sentence “Enjoy your walk” written on it, with white and red chalk.

Walking as an Act of Remembering

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

Figure 8.2. Walking as an Act of Remembering Image 1: Clover on “Walkie-Talkie” Purse; Image 2: Washtenaw Dairy, Ice Cream Shop; Image 3: Trefoil on “Walkie-Talkie” Purse; Image 4: Enjoy Your Walk, Sidewalk Chalk Art. Photo by author.

A collage of four colorful images taken from Blake Transit Center in Ann Arbor. The first image shows a large banner, with a social distance alert, hung on the front glass side of the center. The second image shows a transit bus worker carrying a disinfectant spray bottle, a woman waiting for the bus, bending down as she searches through her purse, and a Number 5A bus, at the far end, ready to depart. The third image shows social distance flyers, between seats, inside the bus. The last image shows a metal seat outside the transit center, with a social distance flyer placed on the middle of it.

The Bus, The Environment, The Human

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

Figure 8.3. The Bus, The Environment, The Human Image 1: “Go the Distance,” Blake Transit Center; Image 2: Social Care, Essential Transportation Workers; Image3: Social Distance Inside the Bus; Image 4: Social Distance Seat, Blake Transit Center. Photos by author.

A collage of four colorful images. The first image is of a sidewalk, in Ann Arbor, with the slogan, “In this house we believe black lives matter” and the word “love,” all written on it as a form of chalk art. The second image is of an African-print bandana abandoned in clover-filled grass field in Ann Arbor. The third image shows a crossroads in a neighborhood in Khartoum, Sudan, with the slogan “hashtag: we will cement the revolution,” painted on it as a form of street graffiti art. The last image is graffiti street art in Ann arbor with the slogan “Say Their Names,” painted on a sidewalk.

Echoes of Revolution

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

Figure 8.4. Echoes of Revolution Image 1: In this House We Believe, Sidewalk Chalk Art; Image 2: Unmasking: We Can’t Breathe; Image 3: “Revolution Cemented,” Graffiti Street Art, Khartoum, Sudan (Photo courtesy of Ghasan M. Hassan Fadlalla, used here with his permission). In this image artists paint excerpts from the revolution’s popular slogans and chants, such as Sabinaha, “We will cement the revolution,” on street pavement. This one is a version of the aforementioned popular slogan painted on a street close to my family’s neighborhood in Khartoum, translation is mine; Image 4: Say their Names, Graffiti Street Art.

Zooming into the Future

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

Signs of Resistance

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

The Garden, Aren’t We All Humans?

From Social Distances in Between: Excerpts from my COVID-19 Diaries

Color photograph of a limestone funerary marker carved with a standing male figure flanked by two small jackals.

Funerary stela of Nemesion

From Grief and the Importance of Real Things during COVID-19

Figure 9.1. Funerary stela of Nemesion. The stela is made from carved and painted limestone and dates to the late second century CE. Measurements: 38.7 cm high, 30.4 cm wide, 10.7 cm thick. University of Michigan Excavations at Terenouthis, Egypt, 1935; field number 10-X; KM 21052. Photo courtesy of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.

Black-and-white photograph of a barrel-vaulted tomb in the Terenouthis cemetery.

Barrel vaulted tomb at Terenouthis with stela in-situ

From Grief and the Importance of Real Things during COVID-19

Figure 9.2. Archival photograph from Terenouthis, 1935, showing a barrel-vaulted tomb with a stela in situ. KM 574. Photo courtesy of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.

Black-and-white photograph of several tombs in the cemetery at Terenouthis.

View of tombs in the cemetery at Terenouthis

From Grief and the Importance of Real Things during COVID-19

Figure 9.3. Archival photograph from 1935 showing pyramid and barrel-vaulted tombs in the cemetery at Terenouthis. A stela can be seen inside tomb #5. KM 565. Photo courtesy of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.

Color photograph of a cardboard box with a faded shipping label identifying the contents as US flag belonging to Larry R Cooper.

Unopened cardboard box with the flag from Staff Sgt. L. Ray Cooper’s military

From Grief and the Importance of Real Things during COVID-19

Figure 9.4. The unopened cardboard box containing the flag from Staff Sgt. L. Ray Cooper’s military funeral in 1948. Measurements: 25 cm wide, 21.5 cm wide, 9 cm high. Photograph courtesy of Ray Davis.

Black-and-white photograph of a thin young man dressed in uniform and standing on a porch. He holds a duffel bag on his right shoulder and has a cigar in his mouth.

Ray Cooper in 1943, just prior to deployment

From Grief and the Importance of Real Things during COVID-19

Figure 9.5. Photograph of Ray Cooper prior to deployment. A typed note at top reads, “Wonder where I am going Bellair Florida May 1943.” Photo scan courtesy of Ray Davis.

Scan of a black-and-white photograph showing a tall man dressed in uniform and holding the hand of a young girl.

Presentation of Cooper's Purple Heart and Air Medals to his four year old niece, Susan Cooper.

From Grief and the Importance of Real Things during COVID-19

Figure 9.6. Susan Cooper with Colonel Stout at the presentation of Ray Cooper’s Purple Heart and Air Medals. Photocopy scan courtesy of Ray Davis.

Color photograph of a fork with three tines.

Fork.

From Grief and the Importance of Real Things during COVID-19

Figure 9.7. Family fork made of carbon steel with a wood handle. Measurements: 18.5 cm long, 2 cm wide, 1.6 cm high.