A Look at the New School Community’s Response to COVID-19
Over the past three months, we’ve been inspired by stories of New School community members using their individual skills, knowledge, and talents to make a difference during this unprecedented time. Our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have designed and donated PPE, served on the frontlines, and worked to find solutions to some of the most pressing issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve used their research, writing, art, and stories to share truths, call out the injustices, and bring people together regardless of where in the world they may be.
The following examples are just a few of the many ways our community has used its creative and innovative thinking to make a difference during this challenging time.
TACKLING COVID-19 HEAD ON
New School faculty Dr. Jamieson Webster has been volunteering as a psychologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Brooklyn where she works to connect families virtually as they experience loss from COVID-19. Because of her work, on May 3, 2020, the New York Post named her their Hero of the Day.
“It’s been just heartbreaking,” Dr. Webster told the New York Post. “The amount of loss and the weight of it on the shoulders of the nurses and doctors is extreme.”
As both an emergency room medical physician and a designer, Dr. Manuel Hernandez, MS Strategic Design and Management, Global Executive ’18, straddles the world of healthcare and design “in a way few others do.” In a recent essay for Health Care Design Magazine, Hernandez shared his experience working on both the frontlines at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA, and behind the scenes at the the design firm Kahler Slater.
“In the truest spirit of design, we are iterating our way forward every day based on our learnings of what works, what doesn’t work and what researchers are telling us,” Hernandez told The New School earlier this month.
Similarly, Raissa Xie and Sudeepti Rachakonda, both students in the MFA in Transdisciplinary Design program, used their skills as designers to create a way for loved ones to stay in the same household if one becomes infected with COVID-19. The QuaranTent, a collapsible tent that allows infected or exposed people to quarantine themselves without causing entire portions of homes to be shuttered off, was a finalist for Global Grad Show’s COVID-19 Initiative and shared by CNN.
CNN also featured the work of Parsons alumni Nevaris A.C. (BFA Design and Technology ‘16) and Eugene Chang (BFA Product Design ‘17), co-founders of Tangible Creative, a 3D Printing and Industrial Design Service that used its over 100 3D printers to create roughly 2,000 face shields per day in the height of the pandemic. Their effort, based out of their warehouse in Newark, New Jersey, gained national attention.
“At first it was very exciting and cool to use 3D printing in this innovative and important way, but it changed pretty quickly to be daunting, when we realized the demand is pretty great,” A.C. told Fast Company in late March.
Guinevere McMichael, MM Voice ’20, helped turn a favorite local cafe into a food pantry serving her Brooklyn community. The new Roots Cafe Food Pantry, a donation-based pantry and soup kitchen in Park Slope, was created as a response to the loss communities are facing during the COVID-19 crisis. Serving soup and sandwiches to anyone in need, no questions asked, Roots Cafe Food Pantry estimates it’s given away between 150–200 meals per week. Because of her work, McMichael was awarded the Tishman Center Student Award for Environmental Justice and Equity.
IN THE HEADLINES
Over the past two months, The New School community has also used critical thinking, writing, research, art, and reporting to help the world better understand the virus and its impact.
The Center for New York City Affairs published “The New Strain of Inequality: The Economic Impact of Covid-19 In New York City,” a report by James Parrott and Lina Moe that focuses on the impact COVID-19 has on employment in New York City. The report identifies the workers and industries that are expected to experience the most profound displacement and economic losses and discusses the daunting economic challenges the city faces in the months and years ahead.
NSSR faculty and Russell Sage Foundation Fellow Miriam Ticktin reported on the destructive, xenophobic narrative surrounding COVID-19 and the importance of combatting that narrative.
“We’re all in the same storm but we’re not in the same boat. COVID-19 reminds us of the urgency of attending to racial and social injustices in our society.” — Ana Baptista
Ana Baptista, assistant professor of professional practice and chair of Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management program, shared a powerful OpEd with NJ Spotlight focuses on the unequal toll the coronavirus has taken on communities of color and low-income communities in New Jersey and how the pandemic demands an environmental-justice response.
Jennifer Benka, MFA Creative Writing ’07 and Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets, helped create the Artist Relief fund that, since it’s launch in early April, has provided over $10 million to artists and writers impacted by COVID-19.
MarketWatch used the research from Teresa Ghilarducci, director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, to highlight the ways COVID-19 is changing how much Americans need to save for retirement.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been an accelerated use of augmented-reality. Maya Georgieva, director of the X-Reality Center, talked to The Atlantic about the new use of augmented-reality and it’s being used to illustrate people’s feelings “of fear, shock, loneliness, wanting something.”
Michelle Materre, director of the Media Management program and associate professor of media studies and film, was interviewed by Realscreen about both the challenges and opportunities COVID-19 poses for filmmakers.
Grace Jun, faculty at Parsons, shared her tutorial for making simple masks with the Washington Post, and Mira Jacob, 2010 graduate of and faculty at the MFA in Creative Writing Program, shared a graphic essay with the New York Times that highlighted the journey of her family leaving Brooklyn for her mother’s home in New Mexico.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Across the university, schools, programs, centers, and institutes have created digital hubs that feature research, reports, and writing surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic from their top thought leaders:
The Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs is engaging with COVID-19 through a through analysis, online events, summer and fall 2020 courses. Read more about their response to the pandemic here. The International Affairs programs also partnered with the India China Institute and created a blog that aims to foster an interdisciplinary and global dialogue on the historical, social, and political dimensions of the pandemic.
The Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility responded to the harsh and unprecedented measures migrants, refugees, and other displaced persons are facing during the crisis by sharing 14 principles to inform and guide State action, to assist international organizations, and to provide a basis for advocacy and education.
From virtual programs and events to emergency grants and funding for those in need, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics created a COVID-19 Resource Toolkit for artists as a way to continue to supporting their community of artists, writers, and arts organizations.
The Urban Systems Lab is compiling its key research, datasets, and relevant articles in a new hub used to keep people informed of during the ongoing crisis. Similarly, the Center for New York City Affairs also created a website rounding up the research, reports, and briefs their team has conducted during the crisis.
FACULTY LECTURES & DISCUSSIONS ON COVID-19
Our faculty have been actively engaged in conversations and panel discussions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Below are just a few pre-recorded and free, upcoming events that shed light on the topic:
Global Pandemic in an Unequal World
The Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs is hosting the Global Pandemic in an Unequal World webinar series focused on addressing the inequality COVID-19 has reinforced around the world. The next online event for this series, Global Pandemics and Digital Technologies, takes place on June 25, 2020, at 10AM EDT.
The Current Moment: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities
The New School for Social Research has also put together an event series focusing on topic surrounding COVID-19. The Current Moment: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities featured eleven talks that offer perspectives on the pandemic by NSSR faculty members from several academic disciplines, including Anthropology, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Liberal Studies, History, Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. The next event in this series is COVID-19: Fear and Attachment Theory with Howard Steele, on Monday, June 22, 2020, at 12PM EDT.
William Phillips Lecture: “Isolation, Loneliness, and Solitude
The New School for Social Research invited National Book Award winning author Masha Gessen to discuss the question: How do we describe what we are experiencing now, in this time of self-isolation? Watch their discussionL
Looking for more events? Check out our online event listings to browse our upcoming discussions on COVID-19 and more.
