Tag: covid
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Blurry Microgeographies of the New Normal
I seem to have developed a bit of a side gig writing about covid. Back in April 2020, I wrote a small blog about the Great Pause. It feels funny to read it now, of course, because we now know what the ruptures to the status quo did and did not accomplish. But at the…
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Cancel the summer of super-spreader mega-events
This being a personal academic blog, obviously I tend to share more of my successes rather than setbacks or failures. That said, I think it’s important to share some of the more challenging moments too, so that’s what this one will be about. Back in 2015, I was fortunate enough to have a commentary on…
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Translocal teaching and Zoom: perils, problems, and pleasures
I taught a block course over the last week on urban theory. It was all on Zoom, which is hardly surprising anymore. What was new for me was that I was teaching a group of PhD students in Nigeria. I’ve never been to Nigeria, unfortunately, and I’d love to go. Given the state of world…
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The Great Pause, new article in print
So, thanks to the great scholar and my good friend Michael Gentile, I had the opportunity to put some of these pandemic ideas into a quick publication for one my favorite journals: Eurasian Geography and Economics. I’m really happy with this one. It was a quick job with a tight deadline but it was fun…
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The Great Pause, continued
My hope, as I’ve written before, is that this time away from the normal processes of sustaining and reproducing our lives would give us the opportunity – both individually and societally – to rethink how things are. Obviously this is culturally dependent and different places have different values, but I’m referring to my experiences in…
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Two Drops of Oil
It’s probably not very academic to mention Paulo Coelho, I suppose, because of his new age connotations and the seductive sense of superiority that we get from relying on citations and peer review and institutional frameworks. But I don’t care, because it’s Week Forever of the Covid19 lockdown, I don’t talk with anyone outside of…
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The Great Pause
I’m sick of looking at logarithmic scales and comparing infection rates among different nations. I can’t peel myself away from the data, though, looking at site after site after site. I text with friends and family around the world, comparing the news media to lived experience. I feel lucky. I feel guilty. I feel scared.…