Anthropological Contributions to the Covid-19 Crisis

A VIRTUAL SEMINAR SERIES BY THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSITUTE

Thursday 9 July 2020 at 3pm (BST)

A video of the event is available here

Lockdown Babies: Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Shadow of Covid-19 in Italy
Prof Vanessa Grotti, University of Bologna
Dr Chiara Quagliariello, European University Institute

Since the end of February 2020, when the first cases of Covid-19 with no connection to international travel started to be hospitalised in the Lombardy and Veneto regions of northern Italy, Italian healthcare infrastructures underwent profound social and material transformations. One of the first consequences was the immediate suspension or cancellation of most non-urgent medical procedures and check-ups unrelated to Covid-19, with two notable exceptions: pregnancy and childbirth. Expecting mothers are among the few ‘patients’ admitted into hospitals for checks and interventions not related to the coronavirus emergency; yet the latter has transformed pregnant women’s lives and the care they receive in and around the clinic: their bodies have become the object of exceptional treatment, both as vulnerable patients to protect and potential viral carriers to isolate and control. This paper is based on ethnographic research conducted remotely in the past few months with both patients (local and migrant women) and medical personnel living across Italy, from the northern regions worst hit by the pandemic, such as Lombardy and Veneto, to southern regions such as Sicily. We will offer a first critical examination of the transformation of maternity care infrastructure across the territory (highlighting how the coronavirus emergency has deepened existing health inequities), as well as an analysis of the body, reproduction and relatedness in the shadow of Covid-19 in Italy.

Distance learning in Italy during the Covid-19 emergency: an unwanted but healthy leap forward for the future of education
Prof Giovanna Guslini

This paper offers, through significant images, an overview of the use of distance learning technologies, in Italy, during the Covid-19 crisis. By detecting light and shadow, it outlines future developments taking into account also the monitoring of national pilot projects promoted in the past. At the end, it examines the particular case of e-twinning, cultural exchanges with other countries. These distance learning projects, experimental in the past years, have now made a remarkable leap forward. In the post-emergency period, they will certainly leave a legacy of a more innovative teaching and learning: a more open education, closer to young people.

This will be held on Zoom. To register please go to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ez9VAiFhQTO7VZHRSrHNBA