Columbia University student COVID-19 oral history collection, 2020

Biographical Note

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified in late 2019. COVID-19 is extremely infectious and potentially deadly. Symptoms include fever, respiratory problems, coughing, fatigue, and loss of taste and smell. Individuals' reactions to the disease are varied, ranging from asymptomatic to extreme respiratory problems, organ failure, and blood clotting. With no cures or vaccines for this novel disease, hospitals were overwhelmed and without sufficient emergency room equipment and medical staffing to help patients. By September of 2020, over 190,000 people had died from COVID-19 in the United States. Because testing programs were insufficient, it is likely that the true death toll was higher. To stop the spread of COVID-19, many governments instituted orders for businesses and schools to close. "Stay at home" orders meant sheltering-in-place. Many workers were laid off and faced economic hardship, exacerbating existing inequalities. Meanwhile, others found themselves working from home for the first time, more dependent on electronic communication than ever before. Economic stress and new modes of human interaction in the era of "social distancing" had considerable impact on American society. By March of 2020 COVID-19 spread rapidly throughout New York City, and directives from authorities changed daily. On March 12, 2020, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger announced that classes would be held online for the remainder of the semester. Some 5600 students dispersed from campus housing, and faculty and students found themselves quickly adapting to new modes of teaching and learning. This included students of Professor Ana Paulina Lee's course Contemporary Civilization II. The course is typically taken by students in their second year, and explores ideas, epistemologies, and historical trends that have informed modern thought. Lee teaches the class through a postcolonial lens, mindful of voices underrepresented in the Western canon. Lee coordinated with Kimberly Springer, Curator of the Oral History Archives at Columbia (OHAC), to have Springer teach the class about oral history as a source and use the archives' holdings for a project. With the changes to conditions caused by COVID-19, Lee and Springer decided to adapt the assignment from analyzing oral histories to conducting oral histories. Springer instructed the students on oral history methodology and offered students the opportunity to deposit their completed interviews with OHAC. Most students opted to do so, and eighteen interviews were deposited at OHAC

Scope and Contents

The Columbia University student COVID-19 oral history collection is comprised of eighteen interviews conducted by students of Professor Ana Paulina Lee's course Contemporary Civilization II. Students took the interviews in April and May of 2020, shortly after the pandemic hit New York City, and Columbia University's courses converted from in-person to online. As such, they offer a snapshot of the understanding of COVID-19 and its social implications in the pandemic's earliest days. The collection’s narrators are Naina Asthana; Michael Aufrichtig; Judith Daynard Boies and Robert A. Christman; Constance J. Chastain; Anthony Lee; Marilyn Maxwell; Yudelka Mejia; William Mitchell; Glenn D. Otto, Jr.; Irenee B. Paul; Ashley Romero; Annie Ryan; Jennie Lou Smith; Sidney Hayes Stansel; Davis L. Walker; Calvin Yubang Weng, Jane and Claire Yan and Michael Li; and Weifang Zhou

Subjects

• COVID-19 (Disease)--Social Aspects
• Epidemics--Social Aspects
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)

Access Conditions

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold non-exclusive licenses to enable library activities