Managing #academic transitions in a time of #COVID19, a long ass, compiled thread focused on preparation, not panic, particularly for #TeamRhetoric and #CommunicationSoWhite folks:
1. Repeat after me: ASYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL MINIMALISM, WITH VIDEO LECTURES OPTIONAL. @AimiHamraie, who is an expert in cultivating care, is right to push us to think more correspondence courses less classrooms. Social justice and digital infrastructures demand the former.
1a. There's no need to reinvent the wheel or rush going online any more than absolutely required. Here are great resources on online teaching and access from experts in the area to get you started: docs.google.com/document/d/1yB… and mapping-access.com/blog-1/2020/3/…
1b. Relatedly, know your platforms and spaces. @rcalo has a great thread on the privacy issues related to Zoom, should that platform withstand a zillion new users. Also, it's called Panopto for a reason. Surveillance is real.
1c. Recognize that students are going to have limited access to Internet and time zones will be tricky. @ericweiskott said some important words about library capacity and the ethics of capitalist extraction in this moment. We also have no idea if our own Internet will go spotty.
2. Save your energy for care work. Displaced students, unpaid wage workers, and sick people will need extra support. Organizing for those folks now, before health care systems and basic salaries get stressed, is really important.
3. Less toilet paper, more inhalers, germ killing tissue, cough syrup, expectorants, pain relievers, soap, gloves, and prescription meds. If people can't get into hospitals, you'll want to help them breathe and treat fevers. Respect triage and stay home unless necessary.
4. Be a source of accurate information. Everything might be okay but probably we'll see a crisis of cases with exponential rise. Italy could be a bellwether for the US. Be prepared to explain how and why to #FlattenTheCurve by way of social distancing.
And while you're at it, amplify the voices of disability scholars, queer scholars, and scholars of color, in all their intersectional wisdom. This is their moment to shine as they've been doing this work for years. Retweet them. There's a few in this thread to get you started.
5. Quarantined folks keep talking about despair, not illness. People, particularly young ones, aren't ready for the mental health toll this is going to take. Talking about the normalness of malaise and ennui is helpful. So is talking about racism. We're all therapists now.
5a. There are great resources on addressing yellow perils and pandemic panics. Here's Duke's syllabus, which is free for the foreseeable future: dukeupress.edu/Explore-Subjec…
5b. @minhyoungsong talked about the helpfulness of reaching out to students individually. They'll appreciate this, as well as face-to-face meetings. Social isolation is going to take its toll on them and us, try to connect with people as you can within our digital bandwidth.
This including thinking about who is stranded where and what they might need. People are far from their families on both sides of the ocean. They might need translation, human contact, or something else. Think creatively about resources and their distribution.
6. Aid in supporting precarious people. This means forming coalitions to help students find housing and storage, pay for flights home, and manage visas. It also means continuing to support small businesses and support staff, including on your campuses.
6a. If you're able, bear more weight by volunteering time, space, money, and services, like moving help, plane fares, and temporary homes. Here's an example of a form for this purpose: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…
6b. But also: @schock is right on that we need to be leaning on our institutions, with their massive endowments right now. @BostonCollege is already providing some aid. Let's get institutions to do the same for their students, support staff, and wage workers.
6c. UHAUL looks like it's providing free storage for students as well as discounts on trailers and whatnot. I hate to amplify the corporate but many people are going to need the resources.
7. Offer to help junior faculty, posdocs, and grad students. Lobby for your institutions to ignore - better yet not collect - evals for this semester and stop tenure clocks. Provide political cover by talking loudly about how everyone's research productivity is going to tank.
7a. Also, help secure reimbursements from universities and professional institutions. And consider doing some transparency work about conference structures in academia so everyone understands the complex hell of getting out of contracts with vendors.
7b. This is a time for collaborative thinking about everything, including how to help conferences transition online. @icahdq led the pack, hopefully they can provide some contacts and resources for other conferences.
8. Plan for the possibility of getting sick but keep on hoping that you won't. Create support networks within your departments, especially for aged, sick, and single people. Check up on people to make sure they're hanging in there. We don't know who will need backup.
9. Find helpers and be the helpers. Seriously, just channel your inner Mr. Rogers and think in terms of neighborhoods. People will need kindness. And for the love of all that's good an holy, put the political rancor aside for now. Unify around the hatred of our Asshat in Chief.
Thank you to everyone who is tweeting and writing right now! And solidarity to everyone managing disruption! May we weather it with good humor and joy. Keep adding to this as you think of new ideas.
Consider this the postscript and update part of the thread.
10. If you need teaching assistance, there's a public FB group called Pandemic Pedagogy. Apart from making for a great board game for PhDs everywhere, there are all sorts of helpful conversations happening there.
10. If you need teaching assistance, there's a public FB group called Pandemic Pedagogy. Apart from making for a great board game for PhDs everywhere, there are all sorts of helpful conversations happening there.
11. If you haven't seen it, @alondra has pinned a thread that is a #CoronavirusPandemic Syllabus in progress. In addition to that and the Duke list posted above, @sjjphd has posted some great reads and I've got #YellowPeril teaching resources that I'm happy to share.
And to be clear, #YellowPeril is different from #HelloPeril, though the playlist from the latter would go well with the reading list for the former. We love you @aliwong!
