Reflections on Writing about Health and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Editing this volume has been both a political and personal project for me. As a longtime sufferer of a chronic illness, I have been interested in how disparities in healthcare, be it the care an individual receives or the care an individual can afford, shape an individual's life course. Healthcare is not apolitical; a person's class, gender, citizenship, and racial status can determine the quality and amount of care they receive. As we see here in the United States, the first people who were tested for COVID-19 were not those who were vulnerable, on the frontlines of fighting the virus, and in need, but rather wealthy politicians and athletes who had the capital and power to access tests. In the middle of this pandemic, the structural factors influencing people's care seem insurmountable. How do we fix this system given the politicalization of masks, the material culture essential to preventing the spread of COVID-19?

Material Culture Studies in the Age of Big Data: Digital Excavation of Homemade Face-Mask Production during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…These approaches were elaborated through COVID-19, considering the material consequences of the pandemic on natural and social worlds, from the scale of individuals to broader ecosystems. Through their own experiences of the pandemic, Angelo and colleagues (2021) established archaeological practice as means of coping with broadly experienced social upheaval (Camp et al 2022). Others explored the intersections of state sovereignty and the memorialization of the crisis through material culture (Magnani et al 2021, 2022).…”