Lost in transition? COVID-19 changed face-to-face teaching and learning across all levels

COVID-19 changed face-to-face teaching and learning across all levels (primary, secondary, tertiary or higher education) as we know it. Julius-Cezar MacQuarie Research Affiliate, Central European University | STAR-UBB Fellow, Babeș-Bolyai University In a similar fashion to the Coffee and Cocktails® (C&C) podcast custom, with speakers having their chosen drink as they participate in Dr Ann…

Discovering humanity in triviality: from toilet paper to sunshine

*Appreciating nature and baking cakes have become some of Josh's newly discovered past-times.  Australia experienced a particularly challenging start to 2020 – even before COVID – since much of the eastern seaboard was devastated by bushfires and capturing international media attention. The ferocity and destruction of the fires and smoke meant that many of us…

Did your productivity under lockdown increase? Nope, I was busy staying alive, but I learned a lesson or two on mental health

Raise your hand if you ever thought at the beginning of the pandemic: “With lockdown, there is plenty of time to rest, learn a new language, pick up an instrument, and take care of myself”. I now wonder if anyone managed these things. In a climate of utmost uncertainty about the future, remaining in good…

Like cupcakes on an assembly line: Towards a more responsible approach to mental health issues in Higher Education

(Photo by Wokandapix at Pixabay) By Andrea Hajek Over the past decade, the issue of mental health in higher education has received increased media attention. Articles recently published in the Guardian, for example, speak of a mental health crisis, with ‘British universities […] experiencing a surge in student anxiety, mental breakdowns and depression’. Accordingly, the…

The Importance of Sharing Anxieties About Fieldwork. Or, How to “Woman Up”

Some years ago, I was gathering interviews for a project on Italian feminism. At one point I contacted a feminist association in Milan, which was running a crowd funding campaign for the launch of a women’s centre. I interviewed one of the project’s promoters, and at the end she gently suggested that I could perhaps…

You Go to School, You Take on Some Debt

During my anthropological fieldwork in Wisconsin in 2017, I encountered what some of my interlocutors called a “forced timeline”. It denotes a specific route in life that many young Americans feel pressured to comply with: “it’s like you go to school, you take on some debt, you know, you find a good job and you…