I know all the problems with securitizing health threats. It’s awful. It definitely leads to stigma. It’s a bad way to confront them. Stefan Elbe, Jeremy Youde, Owain Williams, Sophie Harman and so many IR health all-stars have talked about the downsides of it. The most recent and comprehensive and persuasive case against securitization of the...  Read this >>

In my previous post, I explained why COVID-19 undermines the political credibility of neoliberal globalism and nationalism and should therefore give way to internationalism. Although critiques of nationalism abound in academia and elsewhere, more work is required to elucidate the concept of internationalism. Noam Chomsky’s short but illuminating vol...  Read this >>

In the last two weeks the IMF and World Bank held their annual meeting. Top of the list was of course the COVID recovery and the role of the two International Financial Organisations in plotting the way out of the global depression. Both organisations have serious financial clout behind them. The IMF announced earlier in the year that it loan capacity for...  Read this >>

Yesterday, I finally got around to moving my ‘home office’ – laptop, monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, external hard-drive, an old desk and a chair – from the bedroom to the spare room. Helped by Veronica, my partner – who hadn’t realise she’d signed up to this when she travelled up from Bristol to join me for t...  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 >>

This was meant to be another ‘diary type’ entry, about a few more things that are going on here – where things are slowing moving out of control but are still fairly manageable right now. I wonder how soon Germany will be in lockdown once again. Right now we are seemingly in the same phase in which a lot of other countries have been for ...  Read this >>

            My university has passed mid-semester and things are going better than most feared, or even hoped. Florida’s governor threatened our funding if state universities did not reopen face-to-face (other budget cuts notwithstanding), and thus my school drafted its “re-opening bluepri...  Read this >>

So I am in London now, settled into a nice first floor flat in Brixton with it's Afro-Caribbean vibes. When I first moved to London 20 years ago, it was one of the places I hardly dared to go to, and certainly not alone! But I digress...  I was walking around earlier today, close to Windrush Sq, and I heard a thump, and on turning around I saw an ol...  Read this >>

Last Friday, I flew to Korea. Since then, my quarantine life has begun. This quarantine will be remembered as a unique experience, so I would like to record it in this entry.  The journey to Korea this time was very different from the usual. The airports as well as the flights were exceptionally uncrowded, but it was challenging to wear a mask and a...  Read this >>

In the UK everything seems to be completely out of control. The government has so badly mishandled almost every facet of the response that local authorities across the country have defected from the omnishambles that is the test and trace ‘system’ and are taking these functions into their own hands. The reports last week of Serco’s use o...  Read this >>

The middle of October is probably a good time to take stock of where we are with the pandemic and its associated crises. With second waves hitting several jurisdictions, an 'October surprise' positive test for the US President, news about vaccines, Covid-chaos in UK universities as Brexit moves to its dismal conclusion, and with the advent of flu season i...  Read this >>

So it looks like we're going to have a second wave, or are already in one. And it looks like Edmonton might be locked down tight again. I hoped this wouldn't happen, but it is happening. I have options for how I respond to the fact that we're heading back into the tunnel, but not one of them is a good option. I can deny, refuse, and pretend it's not happe...  Read this >>

I might have almost gotten too smug lately. After a brief stint in London over the summer, I settled back down into my very "COVID-secure" home up North which has been a comfy and safe-feeling fortress during these past months... With zero plans to travel, or hardly leave my street even (it's a very nice street), I had settled down until Christmas, or Eas...  Read this >>

Teaching has started online and boy it is busy. Students are attending online teaching faithfully. Almost all groups are isolating and many of my students, especially the first years, are reporting positive test results for COVID. It is very depressing, and I feel so sorry for them arriving for the first weeks of university only to weather an infection an...  Read this >>

            Recently, I experienced something many (millions of?) others must also be experiencing: a family member in the hospital. My dad did not have COVID-19 but was very much impacted by the pandemic.             Before, I would have immedia...  Read this >>

Step by step, heart to heart, left right left, we all fall down... like toy soldiers...  One of my fave songs growing up (not the Eminem version, but the original). I only recently learnt that it was actually about drug addictions. In my 8 year old mind, it was actually about toy soldiers falling over because they could no longer stand up!  So...  Read this >>

As I write this, I'm on a layover at Pearson Airport in Toronto - first trip by air since March 13. I have never seen an airport with so few people in motion. I had time on my hands so I walked around Terminal 1 (domestic) and Terminal 3 (international). Domestic traffic looked to be down about ninety percent from what I remember as normal, and internatio...  Read this >>

COVID-related signs are everywhere. From the University I work in to my local gym, it’s impossible to overlook the number of hand sanitizers, all the stickers encouraging people to wear face coverings, and the stickers on floors determining the direction of travel. Of course, these measures serve an important purpose, but I do have a few issues with...  Read this >>

The word that springs to mind today, to me at least, is hubris. I've had many friends come up with different words today, some even celebratory... but I cannot - and would not ever - celebrate the ill health of anyone at all. The word for me, is hubris.  I first heard that word back in 2009 when I was doing my first postdoc at the Centre for Non-Tra...  Read this >>