CFP: Ohio Under COVID (Edited Volume)

Call for Abstracts

Edited Volume

Ohio Under COVID

Editors: University of Cincinnati professors Lora Arduser (English), Danielle Bessett (Sociology), Vanessa Carbonell (Philosophy), Michelle McGowan (Pediatrics & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), Katherine Sorrels (History), Edward Wallace (Africana Studies)

On March 9, Governor Mike DeWine reported Ohio's first three cases of COVID-19 in Cuyahoga County: a couple who had returned from a Nile River cruise and a man who had returned from conference in Washington, DC (Cincinnati Enquirer, 2020).

Ohio was similar to many other areas of the country in the spring of 2020. The virus was moving fast, forcing state leaders to make difficult decisions about how to respond. Acting on advice from Amy Acton, the Director of Ohio's Department of Health, Governor Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency on March 9 and Dr. Acton issued a stay-at-home order effective March 23, an order that stayed in effect until May 19.

The order ushered in debates that continue to dominate expert and popular discourse on COVID. This volume uses a health humanities lens to address the political, social, cultural, ethical, and health aspects of COVID in one state as a case study for a larger examination of principles and practices during COVID.

Health humanities is an interdisciplinary field situated at the intersection of health sciences and humanistic disciplines, fine arts, and social science. Scholars in the field address questions of human health and well-being (Jones, Wear, & Friedman, 2014). 

Possible topics for the volume include, but are not limited to:

·      Mental health and COVID

·      Disability and COVID

·      Health disparities and COVID

·      Surveillance practices during the pandemic

·      Protest during COVID

·      Public health and medical institutions’ policies related to COVID

·      Clinical perspectives on care provision 

·      The role of misinformation: Science, trust, and expertise

·      Digital humanities and the pandemic

·      Visual rhetoric of COVID

·      The language of a pandemic

·      Bioethics and the pandemic

·      The history of medicine and COVID

·      Geography, space and the pandemic

·      Violence and COVID

·      K12 and higher education during COVID

·      Religious practice and freedom of religion during COVID

·      State, local and municipal governance during COVID

·      Caretaking and caregiving practices during COVID

·      Economic hardships and relief programs during COVID

·      COVID in literature and the arts

·      Women’s reproductive health and COVID

The editors are interested in making the work accessible to both scholarly and general audiences. 

We are seeking 250-word abstracts for scholarly articles and personal narratives. This volume would accommodate a variety of narrative forms, from more scholarly contributions to first-person narratives. Chapters that are research-based should be 6,000 to 8,000 words. Personal narrative submissions should be 3,000- 4,000 words.

Contributors need not be Ohio based, but their chapters should directly address Ohio as a case study, comparison case, point of departure, etc. 

Submissions should be sent to [email protected] as a .doc or .docx.

Timeline for Submissions

250 word abstracts due: January 31, 2021

Authors notified: February 21, 2021

Full chapters due: June 30, 2021

References 

Cincinnati Enquirer. (9 March 2020). 3 cases of coronavirus confirmed in Cuyahoga County; DeWine declares state of emergency. The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved from: 3 cases of coronavirus confirmed in Cuyahoga County; DeWine declares state of emergency.

Jones, T. Wear, D., & Friedman, L. D. (Eds.). (2014). Health humanities reader. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.