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

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted work and home life in unfathomable ways that 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; Black, Indigenous, and people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer teaching faculty; precariously unemployed people; and other marginalized groups. In this article we draw on interviews with academic teaching staff from across the United States to examine the uneven impacts of the pandemic, with a focus on work as well as home life and the implications of those impacts for current and future configurations of the discipline. We conclude with recommendations for how to ameliorate the impacts of the pandemic.

新冠病毒扰乱了工作和家庭生活, 塑造了并将继续塑造学术界和地理学科。有充分的研究表明, 这场流行病极大影响了这些群体的生活和工作：妇女（尤其是有年幼子女的妇女）, 黑人、土著和有色人种, 女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别和同性恋教师, 不安的失业者, 以及其他边缘化群体。本文通过采访美国各地的教学人员, 研究了新冠病毒流行的不均衡影响, 重点是对工作和家庭生活、当前和未来学科配置的影响。最后, 针对如何减轻新冠病毒流行的影响, 我们提出了建议。

La pandemia del COVID-19 ha perturbado la vida laboral y familiar en proporciones insondables, lo cual ha reconfigurado el mundo académico, y sigue haciéndolo, más específicamente en el caso de la geografía. Tal como ha sido documentado con amplitud, la pandemia tuvo un impacto del mayor alcance en las vidas y trabajos de las mujeres, en particular las mujeres con niños pequeños; los negros, indígenas y gente de color; el profesorado constituido por lesbianas, gays, bisexuales, transgénero; los desempleados precarios y otros grupos marginados. Para este artículo nos basamos en entrevistas con el personal docente y académico a través de los Estados Unidos, con el fin de examinar los impactos desiguales de la pandemia, enfocándonos en el trabajo y la vida familiar, y en las implicaciones de tales impactos en las configuraciones actuales y futuras de la disciplina. Concluimos con unas recomendaciones para mitigar los impactos de la pandemia.

Key Words:

• care labor
• COVID-19
• geography
• higher education

关键词:

• 护理工作者
• 新冠病毒
• 地理学
• 高等教育。

Palabras clave:

• COVID-19
• educación superior
• geografía
• trabajo de cuidados

Acknowledgments

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Provost’s COVID-19 Spark Fund and the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College

Notes on contributors

Abigail H. Neely

ABIGAIL H. NEELY is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755. E-mail: [email protected]. Her work centers on political ecologies of health, racial capitalism, and inequality in South Africa and the United States.

Patricia J. Lopez

PATRICIA J. LOPEZ is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755. E-mail: [email protected]. Her work centers on questions of care through both historical and contemporary lenses.