Lockdown Diaries: Pandemic Stories from the Field

This proposal makes visible the experiences and insights of those living under Covid-19 in insecure spaces. In particular, this project partners five Northern-based scholars with five different research associates from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, who will maintain semistructured diaries over a period of eight weeks. Diarists will observe and record three initial overarching topics: (1) the personal impact and effect of the virus on their lives as well as on their household and communities; (2) the development of coping strategies, with particular attention to the emergence of innovative grassroots support systems and activist networks, and (3) the circulation, uses, and impact of rumors, information, and disinformation. In doing so, through the use of diaries, the project develops a novel practice of conducting remote research in response to the many challenges Covid-19 has created. Additionally, in letting the voices of our global South collaborators speak, the project promotes transnational research collaboration, thus de-centering Europe and the United States as the principal location of knowledge production and dissemination. Finally, this project recognizes the critical importance of collecting research and knowledge about the world particularly during this moment of crisis, and that we still have a commitment to those who we work with. The main intended output will consist of a collective blog series whereby each of the five researchers collaborates with his/her colleagues in writing a separate blog on the findings of the journal entries.