What does it mean to be in the middle of a pandemic-for me, for my country, for the world? How do our current inequalities and injustices become amplified by the demands of the pandemic and what, if anything, can be done? Who is most impacted-and why does it seem that so many of the same people are, once again, deemed expendable and less-than? How do we explain COVID-19 and its attendant traumas to our children, and what do we teach them about hope, justice, grief, and the role of imagination in survival? And once the worst has passed, how do we start again, and what should we care about as we contemplate individual and collective repair? In this collection of public and political philosophy, both well-established and up-and-coming philosophers come together to address these and other questions born of a devastating pandemic to which they are neither objective spectators nor observers, insulated by the passage of time. Indeed, the contributors to this volume are both grounded in, and immediately affected by, their own lived realities as source material for the questions that move and motivate them.
Anna Gotlib is associate professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College CUNY. Her areas of research and teaching include bioethics/medical ethics, moral psychology, social and political philosophy. She serves as one of the chief editors of IJFAB (International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics). Her work has appeared in Hypatia, The International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Humana Mente, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, and a number of edited collections. She has published two edited volumes in moral psychology on the emotions of sadness and regret.
Editor's Introduction: In Medias Res: Philosophers as Witnesses to Disaster Anna Gotlib II.Pandemic and Personal and Collective Identity How Has the Pandemic Affected Our Relationships to Our Bodies? Vanessa Wills COVID-19 and the Politics of Home Corey McCall 3. Waiting to Say Goodbye J.S. Biehl III. Pandemic, Illness, and Disability Sometimes Life Gives One Way Too Many Lemons: Dealing with Cancer in a Time of Pandemic Ruth Groenhout Don't Leave Persons With Disability Behind When Triaging Medical Scarcity Eva Feder Kittay Disability and Disproportionate Disadvantage Kevin Timpe IV.Pandemics and Social Justice Transgender, Trump and the Public Health Jamie Lindemann Nelson The Lifeblood of the Body Politic Jesi Taylor Cruz New Labors, New Burdens, Care Work Re-narrated Jennifer Scuro V.Pandemic, Philosophy, and Meaning Boundaries in a Time of Pandemic Alexios Alexander Science Will [Hopefully] Get Us Out of the Pandemic, But the Humanities Will Get Us Through It Claire Katz Disorientation, Liminality, and Hope in the Time of COVID-19 Barrett Emerick The COVID-19 Guidebook for Living in an Alternate Universe Eyja M. Brynjarsdottir VI. Pandemic and the Future A Letter to My Nieces on Connecting the Dots Gaile Pohlhaus Viral Hope: When Quarantine Comes Home Daniel Conway VII. Index VIII. Contributor Biographies
