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 same time it’s interesting to look back at the early days of the pandemic, if for no other reason than to satisfy a sort of…
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 mega-events and public health published in The Lancet – certainly a highlight for any early career academic. With a number of high profile mega-events back…
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 health nowadays, however, it seems I’d have a better chance of traveling to space than getting safely on an airplane. So no luck there. The…
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 to write. And I’m grateful that I was given the chance to use minor theory to try and make sense of these global issues. If…
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 the industrial north, ranging from Russia to the United States, with a smattering of more progressive western European nations to boot. So what am I…
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 my immediate clan and the occasional chat with an armored grocery store worker, and everything everywhere is different. My zoom colleagues (now there’s a phrase…
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. I’m continuing my work as best I can. My university suspended activities. My kids are home from school too and everything would be fine except…