two women recording themselves on a phone while wearing face masks. Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash.
Center on Digital Culture and Society

Pandemic Archiving, Remembering, and Storytelling

The goal of this CDCS project on Pandemic Archiving, Remembering, and Storytelling (PARS) is to contribute to the building of a public culture of pandemic archiving, remembering, and storytelling.

Photo Credit (top image): Gabriella Clare Marino / Unsplash

After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, citizens and communities around the world took it upon themselves to document its history by recording their experiences in diaries, photographs, documentary films, livestreamed videos, social media updates, and more. Activists and libraries launched digital and web archiving projects to collect and preserve these historical records.  

CDCS's project for this 2022-23 academic year consists of a series of public lectures, workshops, conferences, as well as multimodal publications. See below for a sampling of the people, projects, and events centered on this theme.

Fellows

Two of our postdoctoral fellows and one doctoral fellow are doing projects relating to our annual theme.

Adetobi Moses
Visit Adetobi Moses's profile

Adetobi Moses

Doctoral Student
Watch the Video
Homemade sign reading "Thank you sanitation workers" on a west philadelphia porch

Signs of the Times

With her essay and accompanying photo collection, Doctoral Candidate Kelly Diaz captured a slice of West Philadelphia public life during the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Essay and PhotosWatch a Video about the Project

Events

Our Fall 2022 events explore the theme of the way people are making meaning in the times of COVID.

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Mini-Symposium: Pandemic Archiving, Remembering, and Storytelling

November 7, 4:00 - 7:30pm
Promoting public understanding of the role of digital archiving in the collective remembering and narration of the COVID-19 pandemic

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Colloquium: Abigail De Kosnik, UC Berkeley

December 5, 12:15-1:15pm
"Distributed Performance"

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Colloquium: Deborah Lupton, University of New South Wales Sydney

December 5, 5:00 - 6:15pm
"COVID-19 Narratives: Portrayals of Risk, Embodiment and Otherness in Digital Media."

Three people walking in a crosswalk and wearing face masks. Li Lin on Unsplash.

"The Wuhan Lockdown"

Published by Columbia University Press, this book by Professor Guobin Yang uses more than 60,000 online diaries to tell the dramatic story of the 2020 Wuhan lockdown in the voices of the city’s own people.

About the Book

Video

Introductory Slide for CDCS Colloquium - Identity (in) Crisis: Digital Self-Making During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Title on right with different scrapbook graphics on left.

This presentation traces how shifting social and safety pressures of pandemic life prompted participants to relearn what it means to “be oneself” online.

Introductory slide for COVID-19 Narratives: Portrayals of Risk, Embodiment and Otherness in Digital Media with Deborah Lupton. Lists Lupton's qualifications and Twitter handle.

In this talk, Deborah Lupton presents an analysis of discourses and rhetoric about COVID-19 appearing in digital media.

Guobin Yang speaking against a blurred background

NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge hosted a book talk for The Wuhan Lockdown featuring Guobin Yang in conversation with Eric Klinenberg, Lily Chumley, and Ian Johnson.

Guobin Yang speaking against a green wall

Guobin Yang speaking virtually to the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University

Guobin Yang speaking against a blurred background

The UVA East Asia Center hosted Guobin Yang for a special Coughlin lecture, discussing his new book, "The Wuhan Lockdown and the Limits of Critique."

Guobin Yang speaking sitting in front of a window with curtains

Guobin Yang delivered the talk "Social Media and Social History during the Wuhan Lockdown" at the Long US-China Institute at the University of California Irvine.