The Differential Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Geography in the United States

Keywords: COVID-19, geography, care labor, higher education
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 22

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted work and home life in unfathomable ways, which have shaped and will continue to shape academia and the discipline of geography more specifically. As has been well-documented, the pandemic had an outsized impact on the lives and labors of women, particularly women with small children BIPOC, LGBTQ teaching faculty, precariously unemployed people, and other marginalized groups. In this paper we draw on interviews with academic teaching staff from across the US to examine the uneven impacts of the pandemic, with a focus on work as well home life and the implications of those impacts for current and future configurations of the discipline. We conclude with recommendations about how to ameliorate the impacts of the pandemic.