Quarantined, Sequestered, Closed: Theorising Academic Bodies Under Covid-19 Lockdown
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Quarantined, Sequestered, Closed: Theorising Academic Bodies Under Covid-19 Lockdown Lesley Gourlay 1 Accepted: 10 September 2020 / Published online: 1 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The term ‘quarantine’ is derived from the Italian quarantena, from quaranta, referring to the forty days of isolation traditionally imposed during the era of the Black Death in Europe. This paper examines this and related contemporary terms, in order to consider the complex and contradictory nature of enforced sites of isolation, with reference to the historical literature. The centrality of spatial practices in the current pandemic is emphasised, with a focus on the normally unobserved, micro practices of individuals under ‘lockdown’. The paper reports on an interview study conducted at a large UK Higher Education institution during the Covid-19 ‘lockdown’, and analyses the accounts of six academics, focusing particularly on their embodied and sociomaterial practices, with reference to the etymological analysis. The paper considers the extent to which their reported experiences reflect the various meanings of the term sequestrato, going on to propose that their working practices, particularly focused on screens and video calls, are characterised by a need to ‘perform the university’. I speculate on how the ontological nature of the university itself has been fundamentally altered by the closure of the campus and lockdown, proposing that the site of the university is now radically dispersed across these sequestered bodies. I conclude by calling into the question the accuracy of the term ‘online teaching and learning’, instead suggesting that in a fundamental sense, none of these practices is in fact ‘online’ or digital. Keywords Quarantine . Covid-19 . Sociomateriality . Embodied practices . Online
teaching
Introduction At the time of writing, countries around the world are emerging from ‘lockdown’ arrangements which were put in place in order to contain the spread of the 2020 * Lesley Gourlay [email protected]
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University College London Institute of Education, London, England, UK
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Postdigital Science and Education (2020) 2:791–811
coronavirus and the resultant illness, Covid-19, by asking populations to remain in their homes, only leaving for essential purposes. These arrangements vary across national and regional contexts, and are ongoing in many locations due to continued outbreaks of the virus. ‘Lockdown’ has required millions of people to work at home where possible, and educational institutions were forced to close at short notice. This paper focuses on an interview study which investigated the impact of the lockdown on academics at a large UK university, exploring their accounts from two theoretical perspectives. First, I consider the etymology of some of the key terms associated with the historical concepts and practices relating to ‘quarantine’, in particularly the tensions inherent in the terminology, and how these are demonstrated in the contemporary accounts of these UK-based academics under lockdow
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