Long-COVID, mass disablement, and podcasting

Long-COVID

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues but our national narratives shift away from a crisis mode to a “reconstruction” mode, millions of people’s lives have been forever changed by the virus. This makes it a crucial and urgent area of research.

How does philosophy contribute to scholarship about long-COVID?

Although longterm effects of pandemics are not new, this is the first time that affected people have named their shared condition. I want to examine the interplay between this epiphenomenon and the current healthcare systems in the UK. These systems are founded and propelled by eugenic premises that are haunting policies to this day. Philosophy is uniquely positioned to analyse thes conceptual foundations and their impact on social and political institutions.

Mass disablement

Disability communities that practice disability justice are clamouring for the recognition of long-COVID as a wave of global mass disablement, one of many to come. Between pandemics, natural disasters caused by global warming, and maiming caused by wars, the world is getting more and more disabled. I am studying long-COVID with this collective and relational lens.

Why disability justice and not disability rights?

I am aligning myself with the Black and brown, queer of colour art and activism movement of Disability Justice. Among other things, this movement demands an intersectional and anti-capitalist practice of disability advocacy. This means that it does not constrain itself to the assimilationist and respectability politics of liberal disability rights movements.

Podcasting

I am proud to be part of the emerging practice of scholarly podcasting. I believe that the podcast production process can transform the way we approach knowledge exchange, research ethics, and open and transparent research that is accountable to our communities beyond academia. In the context of long COVID and disability, I think podcasting can be a powerful tool for counter-archiving.

What does counter-archiving mean?

No archive is neutral. For example, when we look at archives of disabled lives we mostly find medical and criminal records. Institutions, doctors, and policymakers thought this was what was relevant. But a human being is more than just a medical or legal object. The anti-colonial practice of counter-archiving is aware of the power structures that guide the narratives around marginalised people. To counter-archive can mean elevating documents and testimonials that were excluded from the official story, or it can mean being proactive in seeking out stories directly from the people most affected. In my case, these are people living with long COVID.