Short Abstract:

The panel invites considerations of how COVID-19 has affected ethnology, folkloristics and related disciplines; how they conduct research and communicate results; how our disciplines have reoriented. The following roundtable brings together perspectives from early-career and advanced scholars.

Long Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has a profound impact on the academic world in general but many disciplinary nuances arise for particular methodological, theoretical and organizational reasons. The panel invites papers examining different ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected (cultural and social) anthropology, ethnology, folklore studies, and related disciplines. This includes (but is not limited to) travel restrictions and the inability to conduct fieldwork, a shift to online activities, developing alternative (online) research tools and methods, the effects of working from home and the effects of physical distancing on the academic community and research in general. The panel further considers emerging pandemic-related topics these disciplines should address, as well as the disciplines' role within a pandemic-stricken global society. The panel also invites discussion on how the pandemic has affected the more practical aspects of academic life, such as employment and funding opportunities, teaching contexts, academic mobility, international ties, etc.

The following roundtable brings together experiences and perspectives of both early-career and established scholars. Specifically, it explores the impact the pandemic has on young scholars, their academic communities, financial prospects, and future perspectives on the (non)academic job market.