Being With One Another During An Era of Social Distancing

There is no sugarcoating the fact that we are living in extraordinary and extraordinarily stressful times. It's important to acknowledge that the COVID-19 global pandemic is resulting in feelings of stress and anxiety for students, faculty and staff at UCI and members of our local community.

As we undertake the important responsibility to practice social distancing to slow the spread of the virus, I want to take this opportunity to invite the Center for Medical Humanities community to lean into one another emotionally. Use remote technologies to check in on one another—a phone call, a text message, a video chat, a social media post—so that our physical distance need not pull us away from one another affectively. In the midst of crisis, we can realize new capacities of humanity for all, especially for those made vulnerable by the threat of illness or isolation.

If you were unable to join us for this year’s activities, or if you did attend and would like to share your experience with others, you may view them on the center’s website. There you can watch Dr. Pauline Chen discuss how medical professionals confront patient suffering, or learn from Professor Susan Schweik as she walks her audience through the history of disability justice and studies, or witness four humanities and social science professors meditate on how their own respective illness became their source of scholarship.

We look forward to seeing you at future center events during the 2020-21 academic year. Now, more than ever, we need to be kind to ourselves and to others. Until then and throughout this time, I wish wellness and kindness for you, your loved ones, and your community.

James Kyung-Jin Lee
Director