Arts & Humanities From Justinianic Plague to Covid-19: A Timeless Story? The news of SARS-CoV-2 spreading across the world and quarantine measures bring back to mind the terrible scourges of the past.
Arts & Humanities W.G. Sebald and the Natural History of Covid-19 The writer and academic W.G. Sebald (1944–2001) is considered one of the most important literary voices of the late 20th century. Less widely known is the pessimistic philosophy of history that underwrites his books: what might Sebald have said about Covid-19?
Arts & Humanities Injustice in the Era of Covid-19 In the Covid-19 crisis, misfortune becomes injustice, as inaction makes governments passively unjust. Political philosopher Judith Shklar helps us to understand why the line between “natural” and “human-made” crises is highly artificial.
Arts & Humanities How Co-Witnessing Could Transform the Post-Pandemic World Of the metaphors circulating in the media to describe the Covid-19 pandemic, the one I find most helpful deploys the image that the whole world is experiencing the same storm, but groups of us are in very different kinds of boats trying to weather it.