Category: Work with Communities

This past week I have spent my time trying to find new avenues for connecting with the elderly. Initially, I reached out to several elderly people on my Facebook community and while some gave short replies, the others indicated that typing so much would be a struggle for them.

I have tried calling as well and found that more successful. It’s been hard to listen to people recounting stories of isolation and loneliness during this time. I’m open to suggestions for broadening my outreach.

The goal of our collection is to verbally and visually represent the theme of displacement during COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how physical and/or emotional separation has affected many Carleton Students. Displacement during this crisis can take various forms, ranging from physical separation from family to the feeling of isolation while living at home. Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of COVID-19 is trying to understand this historical moment through a variety of perspectives, and we believe displacement during this pandemic is a common theme for college students, which has the potential to result in a valuable collection of rich personal stories.      

Our Method:

Since the project goal is to collect detailed stories from numerous students, we have divided the interview process into two sections. The first section is asynchronous, in which interviewees will be sent a short set of introductory questions (name, major, etc.) and then will be asked to complete a brief prompt. This prompt will ask students either to write a short story or share a couple of photos (with explanations) that serve as an embodiment of their experiences during this pandemic. This section will provide a consistent either written or visual component to all of our interviews that can stand alone if need be. Participants will be asked to complete this section before continuing with the rest of the interview. The second section will be synchronous, in which we will conduct and record an interview over video chat. We have created a set of questions that we’ll be asking in order to document the unique experience of our interviewee and discover the ways in which they feel and are affected by displacement. 

Examples of our core questions:

• How has your removal from a normal Carleton life impacted your educational experience and ability to do coursework?
• What new habits or practices have you developed to help make this transition more familiar and comfortable?
• What is something you think should be preserved in public memory about this time?

This is only a taste of the questions 😉 Please come back for the full interviews once the collection is completed!