It’s the evening of 31 December 2020, and I am grateful that this year is almost over.  Newspapers, podcasts, etc. are collecting people’s impressions from the year—“lessons learned.” In one Washington Post entry yesterday (30 December 2020), the writer humorously wrote that she had learned that “nine times out of ...  Read this >>

Today, I did what I think is the most important thing I could do for my country at this point in history. No, not paying my taxes, or following the law, or teaching young people, or raising children to follow the law. Yes, I've done those things, and I'm too old to serve in the military. Rather, I stood in line for 90 minutes with people in my small Tenne...  Read this >>

Never have I been so tired teaching! At my small residential university in rural Tennessee (University of the South- Sewanee), we decided to have all students (1,600) return to campus to begin our 14-week semester on August 17. We gave students the remote option too—which about 10% took. Part of the deal, though, is that on-campus students must stay...  Read this >>

A few weeks ago I had to have a minor eye surgery. The choice was surgery in a pandemic or no vision, so being someone who has to read a lot, I took a chance and opted for the former. Anyway, after the surgery, I was told to keep my head down for 24 hours. “Just look down at the floor as much as you can.” The 24 hours then became about 4 days,...  Read this >>

This is one of those things people shouldn’t do--read some depressing literature during an economic downturn and a pandemic. But given some extra time on my hands, I decided to read Albert Camus’s The Plague (1948), one of those books that I just had never gotten around to reading.  Doing so has been a surreal experience. It is uncanny ho...  Read this >>

Most Americans know about the president’s COVID task force, a body set up by President Trump to provide Americans with timely advice about the pandemic and to make decisions about a response. It was supposed to be headed by Vice President Pence, but Trump clearly dominates. Yet, very few people know about my university’s “task force&rdq...  Read this >>

Tonight at dinner, my husband, two daughters, and I went through what now has become the usual evening conversation about politics and COVID. (We all read and think too much.) It was a day or two after President Trump visited Ford Motor Company in Detroit, a city hard-hit by the virus in a state (Michigan) where people with guns have marched on the capita...  Read this >>

Yesterday (April 23, 2020), President Trump again interjected his own version of science into the daily government briefings on COVID in the US. He asked if it would be possible to “inject” some “disinfectant” into the lungs of COVID victims. He also recommended sunlight as a preventative measure and/or treatment, in response to a ...  Read this >>

We know that health disparities are rampant in the United States. Rates of maternal mortality, pre-term births, hypertension, and diabetes are all higher among African Americans, even controlling for education and income levels. Native Americans face high rates of alcoholism, violence, and drug addiction, while Latinos face rising rates of diabetes. So ma...  Read this >>

I have been thinking about funerals, given the high mortality rates in some countries and/or regions from coronavirus. More specifically, I have been thinking about the many discourses around funerals. From the public health angle, they are an environment in which a virus like corona can easily spread. A few stories from some small towns in US southern st...  Read this >>

I have never been one of those Americans infatuated with the Royal Family. As a child, I remember my mother staying up half the night to watch Diana marry Prince Charles. I thought how ridiculous she was. Now from a political science angle, I get the idea of a head of state who symbolizes the nation, provides continuity with tradition, reminds the people ...  Read this >>

A beautiful day on the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau. I should go for a morning run... that's allowed for those of us who were international travellers and must self-isolate. In my small town of 1500 (it is 3000 when the students are here),  it is likely that I might encounter someone I know when out.  But people are good about switching to the o...  Read this >>

By February, things were looking up; it had taken a long time to get my research clearance, residency permit, research really going on my 10 month Fulbright grant in Tanzania.  My daughter had finally made some friends at school; we had settled in. I was studying societal and policy responses to mental health and Tanzania, and interviews were finally...  Read this >>