CSSH & COVID-19

This page explores some of the many ways members of the CSSH community are engaging with broader audiences in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic. If you are a member of CSSH, please submit news items you would like to see featured.

Research and Engagement

The Data Portal is a key part of BARI’s efforts to collect and disseminate information that foster policy/research collaborations. The database draws from a variety of administrative and social media sources, contextualized within a broader geographic structure that allows seamless linkage across data sets. It includes both the original records, often with enhanced content, and custom aggregate measures (e.g., neighborhood-level metrics). This product was made possible by generous support from Northeastern University’s COVID-19 Crisis Seed Funding, expanding on the activities associated with BARI’s NSF-funded Boston Data Portal.

Boston Data Portal for COVID-19

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The State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey

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The survey and corresponding report was created by David Lazer, University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer and Information Sciences; Matthew A. Baum, Harvard University; Katherine Ognyanova, Rutgers University; John Della Volpe, Harvard University, with support from Alexi Quintana, Hanyu Chwe, Stefan McCabe, all PhD Students at Northeastern’s Network Science Institute. The survey was conducted from April 17 – 26 across all fifty states, with the results presented in the report.

Victoria Cain, Associate Professor of History, has joined the leadership team of this digital archive. Cain and Ellen Irmiter, a history major at CSSH, will also serve as curators. Inspired by the digital archive Dan Cohen, now Dean of Libraries at Northeastern, helped establish after 9/11, this digital repository is a collaborative effort to crowdsource images, oral histories, videos, and stories about the global experience of COVID-19. One of its primary aims is to ensure the archive represents diverse experiences—that it isn’t limited to the experiences of a particular generation, ethnic group, socioeconomic strata, or the like—but sufficiently captures the breadth and depth of experiences during this uncertain time.

A Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of COVID-19

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COVID-19: How to be Safe and Resilient

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Many scholars across the university contributed to the COVID-19 short course organized by Stephen Flynn, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Global Resilience Institute. The hour-long online course, free and accessible to anyone, provides a credible, digestible collection of skills to help individuals and households manage the pandemic. The following CSSH faculty helped create the content utilized on the site and in the online course.

Brian Helmuth, Professor, Marine and Environmental Science Center, College of Social Science & Humanities
Alisa Lincoln, Professor of Sociology (CSSH) and Health Sciences (Bouvé); Associate Dean of Research (CSSH); Director, Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research (Bouvé)
Jennie Stephens, Director of Strategic Research Collaborations, Global Resilience Institute; Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy

Sari Altschuler, Associate Professor of English, and Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Distinguished Professor of English, are crowdsourcing a public syllabus on pandemics, community, and health in the context of COVID-19.

#coronavirussyllabus: a crowdsourced cross-disciplinary resource

Contribute to the syllabus

Northeastern Jewish Studies Blog

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The Jewish Studies program at Northeastern University has created a blog to engage students, faculty, and the community during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Initial posts have been created by Simon Rabinovitch, Associate Professor of History, and Deanna Schwartz ’22, 2020 Ruderman Scholar. Students, faculty, and the larger CSSH community is encouraged to submit proposals for posts (including texts, images, video, and sound) on any topic in Jewish studies to s.rabinovitch@northeastern.edu.

The Writing Program and Writing Center will sponsor three weeks of online writing workshops for NU faculty, staff, students, and the community at large. How can we begin to process and account for our experience during this time of unrest, loss, and suspension? We believe that writing can be a powerful tool for reflecting and healing. We hope that these workshops will begin to provide a space for healing to happen.

Workshops are free, open to the public, and welcome writers of all levels and disciplines. Each workshop is a week long (Monday-Friday). During this time, participants will receive daily writing prompts and readings, which will culminate in an online session together at the end of the week. Those interested will receive feedback on a single piece of writing that they have produced during the week.

April 27 to May 1 – “Chronicle of Healing” with Cat Tyc
May 4 to May 8 – “We Are All Sitting In Rooms” with Ed Steck
May 18 to May 22 – “Writing as Healing: Of Being Numerous” with Emmalea Russo

Writing As Healing During COVID-19

COVID-19 Pandemic in the African Continent

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Richard Wamai, Associate Professor of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies, has co-authored a paper for medRxiv, which examines the epidemiology of COVID-19 in Africa. The paper is the first systematic attempt to provide prevalence, incidence, and mortality estimates across Africa. His research concludes that less urbanized countries with low levels of socio-economic development (hence least connected to the world), are likely to register lower and slower transmissions at the early stages of an epidemic. However, the same enabling factors that worked for their benefit can hinder interventions that have lessened the impact of COVID-19 elsewhere.

Daniel Aldrich, Professor and Director of the Resilience Studies program in the Department of Political Science, received a grant from CSSH to conduct a multilevel investigation of regional and institutional factors such as social ties, health care capacity, and mobility that may be the core drivers in stopping (or accelerating) infection of COVID-19.

Faculty In The News

Boston Globe, Prof. David Lazer
Survey suggests support for more restrictions in Mass.

News@Northeastern, Prof. Nikos Passas
How to spot a counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine

NBC News, Prof. Alicia Sasser Modestino
Amid COVID-19, moms leaving the workforce could have lasting impact on economy

News@Northeastern, Prof. Stephen Flynn
Free online COVID-19 vaccine course fills the gap in public health messaging

News@Northeastern, Prof. Wendy Parmet
Here’s why we need a PSA for the COVID-19 vaccine

Indianapolis Star, Prof. David Lazer
‘A dangerous situation’: COVID-19 kills more than 2,000 Hoosiers in December, another record

News@Northeastern, Prof. John Basl
Are COVID-19 vaccine trials ethical?

News@Northeastern, Prof. David Lazer
Third party voters unhappy with Trump’s covid-19 response are leaning Biden

News@Northeastern, Prof. David Lazer
Here’s how states are dealing with mail-in voting ahead of the election

Inside Higher Ed, Prof. Alicia Sasser Modestino
Women are falling behind

News@Northeastern, Prof. David Lazer
Most us residents don’t think it’s safe for k-12 schools to reopen for in-person learning, new national survey finds