Pandemic politics. Researching the pandemic from the margins: the politics of globalization and global studies under COVID-19
Online sessions – February-April 2021
This seminar series has been accredited as a specialist course of the Doctoral Schools of Arts, Humanities & Law, and of Social and Behavioural Sciences
This year’s edition of the Global Studies Research Seminar will focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely 1) the way in which Corona and the ensuing government policies have acted as a catalyst for existing global crises and challenges (e.g. economic, environmental, migration crises, and the crisis of care); 2) as well how the pandemic and containment measures affect Global Studies research. We will address the pandemic as both 1) a lens highlighting global structural inequalities and accelerating ongoing local-global processes of marginalization and precarization; 2) an opportunity for system change, including decolonizing and commoning initiatives, put forward by social movements that were already gaining momentum long before 2020 (e.g. indigenous resistance, women’s strikes, Black Lives Matter, etc.).
In keeping with the core research themes of the Ghent Centre for Global Studies, the different thematic sessions will focus on “reshaping the city and public space”; “reshaping human/nature interactions”; “reshaping social reproduction and care” and “reshaping borders and mobilities.” We will also discuss our research and the social impact of our research in these pandemic times. Each session will include 1) a reflection on knowledge production and the positionality of researchers vis-à-vis pandemic politics and its effects, as well as 2) a methodological angle as to how to conduct (online/digital) research in the context of lockdowns and limited mobility.