Spring 2020
Quarantine(d) Conversations was a series of A&H talks and presentations about COVID-19 and related phenomena. The program showed how the arts and humanities can provide useful perspectives and frameworks for understanding and addressing the current historical crisis. The talks covered everything from the disease itself to its historical, cultural, social, and experiential dimensions. Each one began with a significant object (a poem, painting, a city, a mask, an egg carton, etc.) and expand from there. This object-based approach gave our public audience a much-needed hook to access the ideas in the talk and potentially discuss and share them with others.
Panelists included faculty from IU Bloomington, IUPUI, and other experts from around the Hoosier state, chosen in collaboration with Indiana Humanities