Reflections on the Pandemic

Reflections on the Pandemic: COVID and Social Crises in the Year Everything Changed is a collection of essays, poems, and artwork that captures the raw energy and emotion of 2020 from the perspective of the Rutgers University community. The project features work from a diverse group of Rutgers scholars, students, staff, and alumni. Reflecting on 2020 from a number of perspectives – mortality, justice, freedom, equality, democracy, family, health, love, hate, economics, history, medicine, science, social justice, the environment, art, food, sanity – the book features contributions by Evie Shockley, Joyce Carol Oates, Naomi Jackson, Ulla Berg, Grace Lynne Haynes, Jordan Casteel, and President Jonathan Holloway, among others. This book, through its rich and imaginative storytelling at the intersection of scholarly expertise and personal narrative, brings readers into the hearts and minds of not just the Rutgers community but the world.

Reflections on the Pandemic: COVID and Social Crises in the Year Everything Changed is a collection of essays, poems, and artwork that captures the raw energy and emotion of 2020 from the perspective of the Rutgers University community. This book, through its rich and imaginative storytelling at the intersection of scholarly expertise and personal narrative brings readers into the hearts and minds of not just the Rutgers community, but the world.

TERESA POLITANO is an award-winning writer, editor, and educator. In 2022, she won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Personal Essays / Memoir. She is the author of Celebrity Chefs of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press, 2010). She teaches at Rutgers University and is part of the university’s Academic Initiatives team.
 

Preface by Teresa Politano
1. Reflections in a COVID Photograph, by Jonathan Holloway
2. pantoum: 2020, by Evie Shockley
3. Mercy (As If), by Mark Doty
4. Writing My Last Book, by Rigoberto González
5. Taking the Court, by Steve Pikiell
6. The New Normal, by Revathi Machan
7. Emerging Not Stronger or Weaker but Different, by Stephanie Bonne
8. Looking for a Better End Game, Mary E. O’Dowd
9. Pandemic Dispatches (East Africa–North America), by Angelique Haugerud
10. War of the World: How Humans Became a Destructive Force of Nature, Paul G. Falkowski
11. Jared (2020), by Jordan Casteel
12. Reflections on Being Human in the Twenty-First Century, by Yalidy Matos
13. Risking Delight in the Middle of a Pandemic, by Yehoshua November
14. Days of 2020: Fear without Knowledge, by Mark Doty
15. A Litany for Survival, by Naomi Jackson
16. Sojourner Truth, Founding Mother, by Grace Lynne Haynes
17. A Letter to Juneteenth on the Embodied History of Life in 2020, by Gregory Pardlo
18. We Cannot Escape History, by Louis P. Masur
19. Paying Attention, by James Goodman
20. A Reckoning with Names: Signs, Symbols, and the Meanings of History, by David Greenberg
21. The COVID States Project: Empowering a National Response, by Katherine Ognyanova
22. I’ve Missed You (2021), by Didier William
23. Burning Bologna, 2021, by Susan L. Miller
24. Pandemic Theology: “Bliss and Grief,” by Susan L. Miller
25. Kid’s Cloth Face Mask from Cat & JackTM, by Belinda McKeon
26. Call the Midwife, by Leah Falk
27. Slap Roti and the Story of New York City, by Marc Aronson
28. From The Journal of a Therapy Cat, by Joyce Carol Oates
29. Black and Gray, by Teresa Politano
30. Playing with Anxiety, by Christian Lighty
31. Virtual Class #219, March 2021, 2:50 p.m.–4:10 p.m. by Mackenzie Kean
32. It’s Harder for Extroverts, by Kelly-Jane Cotter
33. The Old Has Passed Away, Behold, the New Has Come (2 Corinthians 5:17), by Stephen Masaryk
34. Rutgers spit test, by Nick Romanenko
35. Connectivity, Connection, and Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Vikki Katz and Amy Jordan
36. The Faculty Parent: Juggling Parenting, Teaching, Research, and Writing in Uncertain Times, by Patricia Akhimie
37. Resiliency, Resourcefulness, Responsibility, and Reinvention, by David Dreyfus
38. COVID-19 and Spaces of Confinement, by Ulla Berg
39. STOP! (2021), by Stephanie Boyer
40. The Climate Crisis and the University, by Robert E. Kopp
41. 2020: A New Jersey Economy Reinvented, by James W. Hughes
42. Work in the Pandemic and Beyond, by Adrienne E. Eaton
43. The Tolling Bell, by Katherine C. Epstein
44. Stagecoach Mary, by Kimberly Camp
45. On Racism in Museums, by Kimberly Camp
46. STYLE Bird, by Grace Lynne Haynes
47. Meet Me at the Theatre at the End of the World: Thirteen Illuminations and an After-Glow, by Caridad Svich
48. What Kind of Pain, by Leslieann Hobayan
49. Be Still, by Leslieann Hobayan
50. Sorrow, by David Orr
51. The Only Replacement, by Ben Purkert
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Notes
Index