Information about the latest local cases, the furtive yet ultimately speculative timelines for quarantine, and our universities’ tentative but wholly ambiguous (or perhaps unhelpful) instructions for online teaching and graduate packages moving forward is inundating the anthropology community. Yes, we can theorize how the extraordinary is prefigurative of the ordinary, how crisis is a chronic condition in many communities (we see you, Agamben). But right now we need practical, meaningful steps to take care of ourselves, our students, and our wider communities. As the Anthropology of Mental Health Interest Group (AMHIG), here are a few recommendations for the moment, a Coronavirus Care Package, as it were:
Think twice before you send another email. (1)
Account for the labor you request from ALL your colleagues, including student workers, and ALL students– undergrads, grad students, and post-docs. (2)
Adjust your expectations of your students and yourself. (3)
You don’t need to be productive right now. Give yourself permission to slow down. (4)
This situation does not have to be transformed into a “research opportunity.” (5)
Make space for the fact that everyone is going to be coping differently. (6)
Lead through listening, affirming, supporting, and providing transparency.(7)
Reduce harm by asking non-judgmental, thoughtful questions about others’ and your own needs and seeking out mutual aid groups in your community.
Don’t theorize the pandemic; take meaningful steps to help make it more manageable (reduce exposure to negative media, make a schedule, solve something).
Finally: