CfP: Pandemic Leftovers (Call for short contributions)

PANDEMIC LEFTOVERS:
LIFE AND RITUAL IN THE ‘NEW NORMAL’

For a special section of CoronAsur: A research blog on religion and Covid-19 in Asia and beyond 

The research blog CoronAsur, launched in 2020, has become a vibrant site of documentation and reflection about religious responses to COVID-19 and the afterlife of the Covid pandemic.

We are currently seeking contributions that can add to the understanding of the mutual shaping of religion and society after the Covid-19 pandemic emergency. What are the ‘leftovers’ of the pandemic? What are the changes (including in terms of digital engagements, sensory and bodily practices, spatial and temporal dimensions) that have outlived the global health crisis? Have religious practices simply reverted to their pre-pandemic forms, or have there been changes that have had longer-lasting effects? What is really “new” about the new normal?

We welcome contributions of approximately 2,000 words. If you are interested in sending a contribution, please send your personal details (name, affiliation, email address) and a short abstract (150 words) describing the main focus of your contribution to Emily Hertzman (emily.hertzman[at]gmail.com) cc-ing Carola Lorea (carola.lorea[at]gmail.com ) before 15th October 2024. Authors of successful proposals will be notified by 1st November 2024 and will be expected to submit their full contribution by 31 January 2025.

The CoronAsur blog has served as a basis for the phygital edited volume CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age as well as two special issues in the Journal of Asian Medicine and Religion. Based on the breadth and originality of the submissions in this call, these blog contributions will be developed into a collaborative academic publication for those who are interested. 

We are looking for contributions that document and discuss the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ focusing on ritual communities and ethnographic contexts in Asia and beyond. Since the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, every religious tradition has undergone radical changes. With the implementation of safety measures, some religious lives have gone digital. The enforcement of hygienic and ‘social distancing’ practices has dramatically changed aesthetic, affective and material dimensions of ritual acts. 

We are asking, what are the “leftovers” of the pandemic? By leftovers we do not merely mean the material debris, the residues and the medical waste that the pandemic has left behind, in the landfills and in our oceans. Besides leftover products like extra packs of face-masks and self-test kits that lay inertly in your closets at home, the Covid pandemic has had socially long-lasting impacts. What are the changes that have outlived the global health emergency period? These leftovers may be leading to more substantial changes in community organization, the position of minority religions and broader debates on ritual and social change in times of crisis.  Long Covid is a syndrome with biological and neuropsychiatric symptoms that is beginning to be understood not only in physical and psychological terms but also in relation to its social impact. For example, family and personal relationships, work environments, economic security and other aspects of daily life. Are long-lasting changes to religious practice a dimension of this syndrome? Could recognizing the social aspect of long Covid aid our healthcare systems to manage the endemic phase of the virus? How might these conditions alter religious and secular traditions, in different ritual communities and cultural regions?