Anthropological Contributions to the Covid-19 Crisis
A VIRTUAL SEMINAR SERIES BY THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSITUTE
Thursday 25 June 2020 at 3pm (BST)
A video of this event is available here
Roundtable discussion with:
Prof Robin Dunbar, University of Oxford
Friendship is turning out to be the single most important factor influencing our mental and physical health. Because friendships are very demanding in terms of the time we have to invest in them to keep them going, prolonged lockdown is bound to have adverse consequences for the quality of our friendships.
Prof Melissa Parker, London School of Hygiene and Topical Medicine
Dr Hayley MacGregor, Institute of Development Studies
Preparedness’ and ‘Response’ to COVID-19: some anthropological reflections from afar
COVID-19 is challenging epidemiological approaches promoting standardised responses to epidemics and also prompting scrutiny of outbreak ‘preparedness’ plans. Calls are frequently made to follow ‘the science’ through set plans and phases as if there are off- the-peg, apolitical and technical solutions which can be followed in a straightforward and linear manner. Our talk reflects on these developments in the light of on-going research in diverse socio-political spaces in parts of Uganda, South Africa and Sierra Leone. In particular, we highlight the inequalities revealed by COVID-19, the overt politicisation of the virus by formal, hybrid and informal public authorities, and the multiple ways in which past experiences of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola influence current responses to the virus, both from governments and from people on the ground. The challenges of productively altering dominant discourses are discussed in the light of our work with the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform, the Social Science Humanitarian Action Platform and contributions to a Global Commission to build a health risk framework for the future as well as the WHO Roadmap process for COVID-19.
This will be held on Zoom. To register please go to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_D6NyA_ahRuSa2XRFWLPGUw
