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Mar. 12th, 2020 02:20 pmSo, a few hours after yesterday's post about how my university hadn't made any decisions yet...my university announced their extending spring break (we're in the middle of it right now), then closing the residence halls and moving to remote/online teaching for the rest of the semester starting March 23. The university is providing a ton of guidance for faculty moving to online teaching -- more so than I've heard of any other university doing -- and I took a six-week seminar on online teaching last year and actually taught an online class last year, so I'm a bit better off than some. (And because I'm teaching a more or less straight lecture class that was already more hybrid than most history classes were I'm in a close to ideal position just in terms of content and structure.) But it's also just...panic-inducing.
My mom is also teaching at a university this year, back in my hometown in Washington, and they've also canceled in-person classes, except they did so the week before finals (quarter system) which is uuuuuhhhhhh not great, especially for a Japanese class, so she's in the same boat except with less guidance from her institution, so I'll send her links to all of Emory's "how to teach online" info later.
My father was on his annual winter trip to Thailand, extended it about two weeks ago (he was supposed to come back February 26), and is now stuck in Thailand because they have closed the borders. He keeps asking my mom for money and she's furious with him.
I'm freaking out because on top of the actual pandemic, my mother and I have to deal with the major changes this entails for our respective institutions, my father is trapped in another country, and since it's not impossible that Sea-Tac airport (or even Hartsfield-Jackson over here in Atlanta) will close, I'm worried I won't be able to get home at any point in the near future, even though I'd already not expected to go back to WA until August. (Also, please let this all be over by August, since that's when Star Wars Celebration Anaheim is. Never been so glad that it wasn't in April this year like it was last year or in 2017.)
Also I have panic and hoarding tendencies anyway, and this is just...not a great combo of factors. Aside from the actual pandemic. *screams*
Like, I'm teaching this semester. I'm supposed to write and defend my dissertation prospectus this semester. At the moment campus is still open and they're saying it will stay so, so presumably I still have access to the library, and I'd already not planned on doing summer research abroad because my defense will probably be in July/August (due to professor time conflicts; usually it would be in April/May), and I'm not as fucked as all the history grad students who rely on doing research abroad since I'm an ancientist who mostly works with texts, but also: SCREAM.
also uh not a great time to be a specfic writer and reader who also happens to be a historian with a vivid imagination and also severe untreated anxiety
My mom is also teaching at a university this year, back in my hometown in Washington, and they've also canceled in-person classes, except they did so the week before finals (quarter system) which is uuuuuhhhhhh not great, especially for a Japanese class, so she's in the same boat except with less guidance from her institution, so I'll send her links to all of Emory's "how to teach online" info later.
My father was on his annual winter trip to Thailand, extended it about two weeks ago (he was supposed to come back February 26), and is now stuck in Thailand because they have closed the borders. He keeps asking my mom for money and she's furious with him.
I'm freaking out because on top of the actual pandemic, my mother and I have to deal with the major changes this entails for our respective institutions, my father is trapped in another country, and since it's not impossible that Sea-Tac airport (or even Hartsfield-Jackson over here in Atlanta) will close, I'm worried I won't be able to get home at any point in the near future, even though I'd already not expected to go back to WA until August. (Also, please let this all be over by August, since that's when Star Wars Celebration Anaheim is. Never been so glad that it wasn't in April this year like it was last year or in 2017.)
Also I have panic and hoarding tendencies anyway, and this is just...not a great combo of factors. Aside from the actual pandemic. *screams*
Like, I'm teaching this semester. I'm supposed to write and defend my dissertation prospectus this semester. At the moment campus is still open and they're saying it will stay so, so presumably I still have access to the library, and I'd already not planned on doing summer research abroad because my defense will probably be in July/August (due to professor time conflicts; usually it would be in April/May), and I'm not as fucked as all the history grad students who rely on doing research abroad since I'm an ancientist who mostly works with texts, but also: SCREAM.
also uh not a great time to be a specfic writer and reader who also happens to be a historian with a vivid imagination and also severe untreated anxiety