Pandemic Teaching Initiative
The Pandemic Teaching Initiative uses the radical disruption brought about by COVID-19 as an opportunity to deepen learning about pandemic-related issues from the perspective of the social sciences (e.g. economics, political science, sociology, and criminology) and humanities (e.g. philosophy, literature, religious studies, and history). These modules constitute a dynamic, online, open-access library of lessons that are publicly accessible through this website and also available in Canvas Commons. The modules include learning objectives, lectures by Northeastern professors, readings, videos, suggested assignments (for those interested in classroom use), and additional resources for those who want to learn more about the module’s topic. Each module contains the equivalent of a week’s content for an academic course. The library will grow over time as modules on new topics are added.
Serena Parekh, Associate Professor of Philosophy
This module looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted two of the most vulnerable populations on earth, namely refugees and asylum seekers. The first session of this module will give learners some background in who refugees are and some of the complexities involved in being a refugee in a camp in the Global South or seeking asylum in a Western country. The second session of this module will look at what the pandemic has meant for them.
Sari Altschuler, Associate Professor of English
This module is about the stories we tell about epidemics and why they matter. It demonstrates that science and the public have particular ways of telling stories about health. Through scientific narratives, movies, novels, and the popular media, these stories become dominant ways of thinking about things at certain moments.
Kelly Garneau, Teaching Professor of English
Laurie Nardone, Teaching Professor of English
This module discusses some of the qualities of viral viewing, its role during the Covid-19, and why Netflix’s “Tiger King” was a pandemic- perfect series. It then investigates the experience of watching ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries “The Last Dance,” as well as John Krasinski’s homespun “Some Good News” during the pandemic.
John Portz, Professor of Political Science
This module focuses on two potential educational opportunities associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. Session (1) more student centered, “deeper” learning and session (2) greater collaboration among key actors – teachers, administrators, parents, and students – in public education. A final section focuses on key organizational and planning questions related to reopening schools this fall.
Christopher Bosso, Professor of Public Policy
This module is about the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on the food system. It discusses the food system before the pandemic, assesses the impacts of the pandemic on the food system, and then explores the “path ahead” for the food system post pandemic.
Carolin Fuchs, Teaching Professor of German and English; Coordinator of Online Teaching and Learning
Laurie Nardone, Teaching Professor in English
This Module will introduce the concepts of Digital Literacies, Participatory Culture, and Social Presence, which are integral elements in online communities (Session 1). The module also explores the pandemic-related popularity of online learning communities such as YouTube’s #withme videos and Reddit’s IamA subreddits (Session 2).
Don Fallis, Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science
Social epistemology is the study of how people can acquire knowledge in a social world. Digital technology can both positively and negatively impact our ability to acquire knowledge. The internet and smartphones give us easy access to immense computing power and huge databases. Social media and videoconferencing facilitate communication and collaboration with large numbers of people at great distances from us. But these digital technologies can also diminish the influence of traditional information gatekeepers, promote belief polarization, and facilitate online deception. This module is about how the pandemic is affecting our ability to acquire knowledge through digital technology and on how digital technology is affecting our ability to acquire knowledge about the pandemic.
Denise Garcia, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
This module addresses the current organizations and systems that can facilitate global scientific cooperation to defeat COVID-19., specifically by examining to what extent these systems have adapted during the pandemic and how some organizations have researched treatments and solutions to the pandemic. It also examines how the United Nations plays an important role in international cooperation and financial commitments to creating and distributing a vaccine.
Megan Denver, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Natasha Frost, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; PhD Program Director
This module is about the prison as an institution, its history, and its role in spread of infectious diseases. It then turn more specifically to COVID-19 with sessions on: the scope of the problem in prisons and jails; federal, state and local responses to the pandemic; and the potential for persistent impacts.
Katy Shorey, Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy
This module will explore a method for reconstructing and evaluating standard statistical arguments. Simply put, predictive statistical arguments use premises describing observed phenomena to draw conclusions about phenomena that haven’t been observed.
Sarah Finn, Associate Teaching Professor in English
Emily Avery-Miller, Assistant Teaching Professor of English
This module represents community-engaged courses during the pandemic. It present activities and assignments for remote service-learning for the first week of class and beyond. The module also includes further resources to plan for community-engaged projects, especially in a digital or hybrid format.
Laurie Edwards, Teaching Professor and Online Pedagogy Coordinator in English
Mya Poe, Associate Professor of English; Director of the Writing Program
Living through the current pandemic is not only about the medical and financial fall-out of COV-SARS-2 and COVID-19 illness, but also about the lasting trauma that has been felt by individuals as they, their families, and communities struggle during this historical time. Storytelling is a means of healing from trauma. This module give writers tools to compose personal healing narratives, to frame their personal inquiries within a larger research context, and to position themselves within the larger community response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, we draw upon research on trauma theory, research on expressive writing and healing, and research on responding to writing. Through this public teaching initiative, we ask “How can we transform the trauma we experience in the current COVID-19 pandemic into a reflective moment that inspires resilience?”
Bilge Erten, Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs
This module examines the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on the risk of experiencing domestic violence. The first session introduces the topic and explains the various channels through which the pandemic can give rise to a greater incidence of domestic violence. This includes the additional spent time with potential perpetrators, the worsening labor market conditions, and the deterioration in mental health of individuals. The second session provides a more research–focused attention to the same question, focusing more on the United States.
Gretchen Heefner, Associate Professor of History
Philip Thai, Associate Professor of History
This module discusses three global health crises of the Cold War era, Smallpox, the “Asian Flu” of 1957-58 and the “Hong Kong Flu” of 1968-69. It examines the ways that global health crises have sewn divisions and led to heightened tension between certain governments; but also the ways that responses to global illness have encouraged intense cooperation and coordination as the international community attempts to discover a cure, vaccine, and way to slow the spread or halt a disease altogether. It also considers the ways that history may most efficiently be used to address the present pandemic moment.
Michael Tolley, Associate Professor of Political Science
Claudia Haupt, Associate Professor of Law and Political Science
This module will introduce the basic concepts of public health law in the United States. There is an inherent tension between the measures taken by government to promote the health and well being of the community and individual rights. This Module examines this tension with three sessions. In Session 1, we explore Liberty and Public Health in Historical Perspective. In Session 2, we examine the Constitutional Framework that both empowers and limits government action on behalf of public health. In session 3, we examine these public health law principles in action in the cases that have arisen recently as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.
James Dana, Professor of Economics and Strategy
This module introduces the concepts of economic efficiency and market failure, and uses them to analyze economic policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. The economics discipline analyzes the allocation of resources and in particular the role of markets as a mechanism to allocate resources. It views the role of government as helping markets to work better when markets fail to achieve efficiency outcomes on their own.
Liz Bucar, Professor of Religion
This Module introduces the academic study of religion (Session 1). It then looks at how risk, contagion, and impurity (Session 2), challenges to communal gathering in a time of social distancing (Session 3), and protests for major structural change during a pandemic (Session 4) can all be better understood through attention to religion.
Christopher M. Parsons, Associate Professor of History
This module examines how historians identify the diseases responsible for historical epidemics. Focusing on the difficulty identifying the pathogens responsible for the epidemic most commonly known as the Black Death and the outbreak of epidemic disease in New England in 1616-19 that devastated Native American populations, it highlights the uncertainties and challenges involved in using historical diseases as comparisons for COVID-19. An emphasis is on learning how to analyze historical evidence and ascertain how these retrospective diagnoses are used to make arguments about health and illness in our present moment.
Erika Boeckeler, Associate Professor of English
Kathleen Coyne Kelly, Professor of English; Undergraduate Program Director
This module examines, discusses, and analyzes a small selection of narratives and visual artifacts from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Visual images and eyewitness accounts are quite capable of powerfully conveying the unspeakable, comforting the anxious and inconsolable, and shining light on the invisible. We also offer you an opportunity to talk back to Shakespeare in the context of Covid-19 as a way to bridge the gap between then and now—and perhaps to find comfort, solace, and clarity.
Denise Garcia, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
This module examines how states view their priorities when it comes to national security. The first part of the module discusses how states can transform their views of national security to prepare for actual perils. The second part critiques excessive military budgets; money that could be used to defend and protect citizens from events, such as pandemics.
Nikos Passas, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Co-Director, Institute for Security and Public Policy
This module introduces the concept of “criminogenic asymmetries” in times of emergency and explores ways in which crises are constructed and potentially abused by those in authority. The module also discusses topics such as “lawful but awful” practices and “institutional corruption”, in order to pave the ground for policy implications and ideas towards strategies and approaches for both the public and private sectors.
Madhavi Venkatesan, Assistant Teaching Professor of Economics
This module will incorporate lifecycle assessment of consumption to highlight the true cost of consumption. The discussion will address how individuals can promote long-term change to the benefit of our planet and people by simply allowing social and environmental justice values to guide their market behaviors.
Bret Keeling, Teaching Professor in English
This module explores the first year of AIDS in the United States and compare the similarities and differences between AIDS and the first year of COVID19 in the United States. It then explores Mark Doty’s Heaven’s Coast: A Memoir as a case study that exposes trauma even as it works toward resilience.