It has now been just over one month of sheltering at home here in the US.  Like most universities around the world, my institution moved all instruction online last month.  One of the courses that I teach is a doctoral seminar in Applied Linguistics, which I describe to friends in the following manner: “we sit around a conference table and discuss different research articles each week.”  Of course, we still read and discuss different research articles each week.  But rather than sitting at the same table in a shared physical space, we now sit in our individual homes and gaze at each other in the small Zoom boxes that appear on our screens. One of the students in my class shared a dream she recently had: “I dreamt that we were sitting around discussing research articles… but they all had something to do with COVID.”  With that statement, she predicted what the next iteration of the course will probably look like.

A number of colleagues I have been in touch with (mostly language people and other social-sciencey types) have found that the topics of their research have somehow been disrupted or impacted by the health crisis (and related circumstances) that we are currently experiencing.  As a response, they are shifting focus and undertaking new research projects – or adapting their current research – in ways that are somehow COVID-related. 

For instance, colleagues at UK and Hong Kong universities have launched a new blog, Viral Discourse, where you can read posts on topics ranging from war metaphors used in journalistic reporting on COVID, to the mixed messages we’re getting about the use and non-use of wearing masks to protect ourselves and others.  Another colleague here in the U.S. is researching COVID-related humor on internet dating sites.

Certainly the variable responses of different political leaders to the public health crisis as well as their messaging tactics is a topic that has elicited a wide range of reactions.  The Association for Business Communication (ABC) invited me to contribute a digital lecture to their collection of online resources, and I decided to focus on leadership discourse, as exemplified by NY governor, Andrew Cuomo’s press briefings.  Like many other viewers, his no-nonsense, stick-to the facts approach really resonates with me.  I also appreciate how he humanizes this very odd reality we are living through by sharing personal narratives about his family’s responses.  You can view my brief lecture on this topic here.

I’ve also been observing how the travel and tourism industries have been severely impacted by this crisis.  With non-essential travel and tourism currently on hold, one creative business adaptation I have been following with great interest is Airbnb’s Online Experiences. Offering remote experiences such as “Wine Class with a Cool Wine Expert,” “Easy Balinese Vegetarian Home Cooking” and “Guided Meditation with Sleepy Sheep,”  Airbnb is harnessing the immersive, educational and interactive aspects of tourism and offering a digitally mediated alternative to traditional travel.  Airbnb launched Online Experiences on April 9, and since then, the number of experiences on offer have more than doubled.  With this trend, we are likely witnessing the birth of “virtual tourism.”