With only a few weeks left before our final presentation, the task is underway to best capture and more deeply articulate the significance of Corona Chronicles.  One area of indirect significance relating to the impact of the pandemic on younger generations comes through in the research on the long-term effects of in utero influenza exposure during the 1918 influenza pandemic.  In a study published in 2006, Dr. Douglas Almond, an economist at Columbia University, concluded that “cohorts in utero during the pandemic displayed reduced educational attainment, increased rates of physical disability, lower income, lower socioeconomic status, and higher transfer payments compared with other birth cohorts.”  Almond’s study leverages vital statistics available during the 1918 pandemic and census data for 1960, 1970, and 1980.  As the following graphs taken from Almond’s report illustrate, significant variances occurred for individuals born during or shortly after the 1918 pandemic.

1960 average years of schooling: men and women born in the United States. source: Almond, Douglas. 2006. “Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long‐Term Effects of In Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post‐1940 U.S. Population.” Journal of Political Economy.

1970 High School Graduation: by year of birth. source: Almond, Douglas. 2006. “Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long‐Term Effects of In Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post‐1940 U.S. Population.” Journal of Political Economy.

1980 male disability rate: physical disability limits work. source: Almond, Douglas. 2006. “Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long‐Term Effects of In Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post‐1940 U.S. Population.” Journal of Political Economy.

Almond also mentions research suggesting links between the 1918 pandemic and possible increases in the occurrence of schizophrenia, diabetes, and stroke (Almond 2006, 680).

In another more recent study published in 2017, researchers at the North Carolina Research Triangle Park, Brown University, and Duke University concluded that “[i]n utero exposure to the influenza pandemic increased functional limitations and hospitalization rates in old age” (Acquah, Dahal, and Sloan 2017, 1477)

Given these data and conclusions, which persuasively argue for the development of public health policies that support prenatal health centered around the needs and wellbeing of mothers, a host of related questions might be raised concerning the impact of pandemics on children’s health.  What long-term impact did the 1918 pandemic have on parenting and child care?  What were the differential long-term outcomes between families stricken by the 1918 pandemic and families which were less seriously affected?  What long-term impact did the closure of schools during the 1918 pandemic have on students?

An area of more direct significance pertains to the understanding and treatment of childhood trauma.  Within the context of epigenetic, developmental, and traditionally understood childhood trauma, the role of art as a creative expression of subjectivity offers the possibility for therapeutic spaces for healing.  Of the many definitions of trauma, the notion of trauma as any unmanageable, often dysphoric, unresolved autonomic nervous system response (Levine 1997) that is disassociated from its healing environment might consider art therapy as part of a fundamentally somatic resolution.  Beyond the healing that can result from the doing of art lies the healing resulting from having one’s own trauma recognized.  Art as a shared experience therapeutically presents the possibility for a supportive environment that can help re-associate and reintegrate fragmented and unresolved psychological and emotional wounds.  As was recently noted by Dr. Shirley Sharon-Zisser in an essay applying Lacanian theory to art therapy:

“The distinction Lacan makes in his twenty-fourth seminar (1976–1977) between full speech (speech that is full of meaning) and empty speech (speech voided of sense and reduced to its real value),…as well as the increasing emphasis in Lacan’s late teaching (as of the twentieth seminar of 1972–1973…) on nonsensical speech voided of sense, indicate the necessity to draw a distinction between the clinical role of artistic modalities which engage language’s semantic dimension (story-telling, image dialoguing, psychodrama) and artistic modalities which can work towards the reduction of the phantasm to its material, non-signifying components, traumatic residues of an enjoyment beyond sense” (Sharon-Zisser 2018, 7).

References

Acquah, J. K., Roshani Dahal, and Frank A. Sloan. 2017. “1918 Influenza Pandemic: In Utero Exposure in the United States and Long-Term Impact on Hospitalizations.” American journal of public health 107 no. 9 (September 2017): 1477–1483. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303887

Almond, Douglas. 2006. “Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long‐Term Effects of In Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post‐1940 U.S. Population.” Journal of Political Economy 114 no. 4 (August 2006): 672-712. dio:10.1086/507154

Levine, Peter A. 1997. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

Sharon-Zisser, Shirley. 2018. “Art as Subjective Solution: A Lacanian Theory of Art Therapy.” International Journal of Art Therapy: Inscape 23 (1): 2–13. doi:10.1080/17454832.2017.1324884.

These posts have proven hard for me to write each week – not for lack of something worthwhile to share from our group work – but because of how all of our work this semester has been running parallel to and embedded in a constant series of world events that are both hard to ignore and hard to appropriately connect in a manner that does not feel trite or disregarding. I have felt the heaviness of the wider world hang over trying to compose each of these.

I realized this week that I am looking forward to the summer for rest, clearly, but also to have time to reflect on what the next phase of this project will look like with less rushed consideration of some of our choices, particularly around outreach. I am not sure I will know everything I’ve learned this year until I am no longer consciously thinking about it and the lessons have time to settle and find their own rearticulating.

Prizing a fast pace has been a benefit at many stages but has also been something I’ve questioned. In the process, I have come to wonder about DH theories on pacing and structure of planning projects in the field. I am thinking of the intentionality of process in design thinking models. Or inquiry-driven teaching models with their four phases (Interaction, Clarification, Questioning, and Design). And at the end, reflection is critical before engaging in the next phase or iteration. Of course, we have in many ways followed this sort of model with the balance of our time spent on Design so it may just be that reflection is what’s called for and right on schedule.

The idea of failing quickly and often, and expecting to do so, and not just recovering, but rather building joyfully out of failure is one of those DH themes that has been on my mind a lot. So too are questions of voice, access, inclusion, representation, and absence. Few of these things are served by haste, but haste has helped us build a platform into which these values can be constructed. I believe that in the site’s current form, we as a group have already created something truly meaningful and worthwhile. And among the many things I am grateful for – beyond the most important thing, which is our team (just made up of the best people) – is that its current scale also still allows for modification to structure and design that will make it even more deeply mission consistent before growing consumed with processing and managing data.

It will be helpful and healthy to formalize reflections in the form of our end-of-term papers, and to tie them to the DH values we worked through in the spring. I’m genuinely looking forward to that process, rather than dreading that final paper – yet another thing to be grateful for!

This past week was especially tough to juggle everything as I had some competing deliverables for work to handle, but we had some really productive meetings as we’re wrapping up some of the final details for our project. Most importantly though, I feel so lucky to be on a supportive team that’s really being generous with their time and care for each other.

On Sunday we brainstormed some ideas for our project trailer that we can use for future outreach and social media efforts. We heard feedback from last week’s presentation about showing off more of our student submissions, so the trailer will really amplify some of the stand out pieces. While we’d love to include a portion of this video during the final presentation, we’re going to avoid any awkward zoom issues that might happen with that. Instead we’re focusing on pumping our slides full of these student stories in creative ways. Does anyone know how to make a gif?

We also had fun going around the call where each of us did a lightning 20 second pitch of what our project is to inspire that opening energy that every good presentation has. One of our goals with this presentation is to be memorable to the audience on the day of the showcase. During an evening Zoom call with back to back projects, it’s easy for anyone to zone out a little even though this class has done some seriously impressive work. I’m so inspired after watching the other group accomplishments last week, and I can’t wait for the rest of the GC (and some public viewers) to also be blown away by what we’ve built.

In the meantime, I continue to focus on keeping the team updated and on track by providing meeting notes, agenda items, and heads up on upcoming milestones. I’m happy my organization skills could be useful to this project. I’m also very thankful that I work with wonderful project managers that I can model my role off of.

This has been a somewhat hectic week for me. My time has been consumed with work, finalizing research for other projects, and attempting to plan out  next semester. However, when it comes to this course, I have been able to slow down a bit and take time to enjoy the work. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I revisited the African Burial Ground National Monument to record some sounds for our podcast. This was a moment of serenity for me as I took a break from other responsibilities to just sit with myself, observe my surroundings, and appreciate minute details I typically don’t even notice – the distant smell of salt in the air, fleeting snapshots of others’ lives, and the city’s hectic cacophony of sounds which are simultaneously abrasive and beautiful. I’ve been looking forward our team’s next podcast recording, which will be happening very soon!

In terms of outreach, my most recent post that went up on Instagram and Facebook promoted our Making Mapping Cemeteries site that Bri has put together. The site houses so much information and Bri did a wonderful job building it so if you have not checked it out yet I highly encourage you to! I’ll link it below. Asma and I will be meeting tomorrow to go over our first Tik Tok post. I will unashamedly admit to having posted a video or two on the platform before myself so I will be helping Asma with the editing process if needed.

In our last meeting, I presented the team with some logo designs I had created. After some helpful feedback, I have a better idea of a logo that best represents the project (and looks cool/cohesive with our aesthetics). Because I’ve been so busy this week, I haven’t had a lot of time to dedicate to this but this is something I plan to have done by our next class on Thursday!

Check out Making Mapping Cemeteries