Many scholars at CWTS are now working hard, as they are elsewhere, to make some meaningful and helpful contribution in the current crisis. Being neither biomedical specialists, nor specifically engaged in topics related to disease or epidemics, a Science and Technology Studies research center like CWTS might not be the most logical of places to start doing Covid-19 related research projects. Surprisingly, however, a host of quite different but promising ideas are actually being developed by many CWTS researchers as we speak. These projects are very diverse, envisioned for either the short or long term, with some more scientometrics-based while others rely on qualitative research methods, and all variably focused on looking at the past, present, and/or future of funding, literature and research relevant to Covid-19 and its multidimensional contexts. I hope that more of them will soon follow my example and share with you all the (very!) interesting stuff they have already uncovered.

In the meantime, however, a plethora of other institutes and disciplinary communities - just as far removed as we are from the typical biomedical and epidemiological research and literature that many now turn to in these trying times - are already way ahead of us, and have already started building academic responses, providing meaningful commentaries, and compiling relevant syllabi and literature lists. Our own small project, part of an ad hoc Covid-19 research group brought to life by Ismael Ráfols entitled ‘Broadening the Perspective’, is meant to gather some of this literature about Covid-19 - or more generally the relevant literature on epidemics, the interaction between crises and socio-cultural inequalities, social distancing, loneliness and so forth – that originates outside of the expected biomedical and epidemiological fields, and which stems from areas that are usually not included in a first selection of relevant expertise when responding to this type of crisis.

This latter selection criterium is, as I am well aware, a vague one. However, the point is exactly that: to look to places where things might indeed become a little vague and seek out the scientific literature that our scientometric sisters and brothers might not find as easily when first scouring the landscape for Covid-19 relevant literature and knowledge. To see where and how others - in fields in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) for example - might provide potentially crucial and valuable responses that could otherwise be overlooked by those not connected to these fields.

This idea of ours appeared to be not only a reasonable one, it was in fact (of course!) already being done. Indeed, it didn’t take long for us to find (in our immediate circles no less) ever-expanding syllabi and literature lists being created at high speeds in a lot of different areas. Rather than providing a broader perspective on issues and knowledges related to Covid-19 ourselves, we are still very much trying to play catch-up and getting some perspective on this seemingly vast and expanding network of files, fora and lists that are already doing much of that work for us.

This blog post is in many ways simply meant to be another link in that network as it is coming into being: providing readers with some links to the work of others, who can in turn provide you with more interesting links to more interesting work of others. However, it is also to force ourselves (as was rightly suggested by a blog editor) to maybe step outside of our collective comfort zones and automated academic responses, which often drive us to try and work towards some sort of finished project or end product before sharing our thoughts, and instead communicate in the here and now about what we’re seeing. Thus, what I present below is both a list under development of an already amazing amount of links to Covid-19 responses, compiled literature lists and more, all stemming from various corners of academia, and my own initial and brief notes on their content, written while I have been searching for and looking through all of this as we try to ‘broaden the perspective’ on Covid-19, its related crisis (crises) and possible responses.

The list starts with several links to syllabi and literature lists made and continuously updated by collectives of academics working in different areas of the social sciences or humanities, which each provide enormously rich lists of sources relevant to the social and cultural aspects of disease and epidemics in often unexpected ways. Some prominent themes here include plagues and epidemics of the past; the role of expertise in governance and society; misinformation and media; psychological strain and mental health; social distancing and solidarity; COVID-19 as ‘syndemic’; relations with economics, biopolitics, capitalism and neoliberalism; the Risk Society; ‘outbreak narratives’; comorbidity and social inequalities, ableism and gender relations as co-determinant in disease spread and burden, and much, much more.

List 1. Continuously updated and crowdsourced academic syllabi and online collections of sources related to COVID-19.

But, next to these collections of old and recent relevant literature, there is also a host of more direct academic responses to the COVID-19 outbreak. Although our dominant infrastructures of communication through peer-reviewed journals prove very ill equipped to move at the speed of a virus, academics from all across the spectrum have sought to respond and share knowledge through opinion pieces, blogs, curated forum discussions and so on. My list therefore also includes both a set of curated collections of academic forum posts, blogs and essays (see list 2), mostly centered around a specific discipline or theme, as well as a more extensive list of individual contributions I have gathered and selected myself (see list 3). This latter list also includes things like short essays, individual blogposts and contributions to some more popular science journals, but excludes (with maybe one or two exceptions) everything published in more regular news media outlets (which means I may have missed some very valuable contributions made by scholars in newspapers and the like). Moreover, the selection is unquestionably subjective, and probably relies more heavily on sociological and anthropological contributions than on those from any other fields due to my own disciplinary backgrounds. Nevertheless, I am still very happy that it actually includes some singular contributions from fields as diverse as economics, psychology, classical studies, literary studies, history, art, art history, philosophy, theology, journalism and communication, and environmental studies. Though each contribution is thus coupled to some notes that I hope might guide you in choosing things of interest to you, I have ordered all of them chronologically (unless it entails a direct response or follow-up) rather than according to something like discipline or theme. This is primarily due to the practical issues of maintaining such strict classifications here, but at the same time I’m hoping it might also arouse some curiosity, entice some readers into investigating something unexpected, or ‘broaden someone’s perspective’ as they move through the lists.

List 2. Themed or disciplinary collections of (short) essays, papers, blogposts and discussions on COVID-19.

Before finally coming to my last (highly tentative) list, an important note: All of what you see here is built on the hard work of others (as academia generally is) and they deserve all the credit. They have on the whole been sharp and quick to respond in variable meaningful ways in what will undoubtedly also have been hard times for them, as it has been for the rest of us. All I hope to have added here for now is to share some of this relevant and compelling literature with those that may not have come across it yet. It is in no way meant to be comprehensive nor complete; you will undoubtedly disagree with my decisions on the usefulness or relevance of what I have in- or excluded; what is included is without any doubt extremely biased as it has been collected via mostly personal and disciplinary networks (and many disciplines so far still lack any representation); and much of it may very well become outdated in a week’s time (though I doubt it!). However, rather than presenting the final conclusions on what SSH can say about Covid-19, this blog post is meant as a tiny contribution in linking thoughts and ideas to people, and as such I hope very much you will be joining me in doing the linking. So please: look through it, add and recommend more, criticize me for all the important things I’ve obviously overlooked, but by all means also share it with those that may find it useful! 

List 3. Written commentaries, projects and responses to the COVID-19 outbreak by scholars or scholarly collectives.