The Long 2020

Sharply intelligent, often personal reflections on the global crises of 2020 that are still ongoing By all accounts, 2020 was the longest year in recent memory, as people in the United States and across the globe careened from one unfolding catastrophe to another. The consequences of this devastating year are sure to impact the planet for decades, if not centuries, to come. This collection considers the question of that long 2020 from the perspective of the lived experience of the year, its long and deep roots in various human and nonhuman pasts, and the transformation of our sense of the future. The Long 2020 assembles a strikingly interdisciplinary group of scholars and thinkers to address how the many crises of 2020—epidemiological, political, ecological, and social—have unfolded, examining both their origins as well as their ongoing effects. The contributors address questions of time, history, and scale as they have played out, and continue to play out; the relationship between home and environment, with a focus on architecture, breathing, and human–nonhuman relations; and the experience of cultural, political, and social life, deploying cultural and political theory to explore questions of race, gender and sexuality, and democracy. The global pandemic has still not abated, reflecting the need to rethink our interrelatedness to viruses and other species. In bringing together this diverse group of authors, The Long 2020 offers a variety of perspectives on the impacts of that fraught year, the effects of which continue to permeate daily life. Contributors: Stacy Alaimo, U of Oregon; Elisabeth Anker, George Washington U; Janelle Baker, Athabasca U, Alberta, Canada; Daniel A. Barber, U of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design; Adia Benton, Northwestern U; Levi R. Bryant, Collin College; Beatriz Colomina, Princeton U; William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins U; Cary Gabriel Costello, U of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; Megan Craig, Stony Brook U; Wai Chee Dimock, Harvard U; Paulla Ebron, Stanford U; Nirmala Erevelles, U of Alabama; Roderick A. Ferguson, Yale U; Rosa E. Ficek, U of Puerto Rico at Cayey; Stefanie Fishel, U of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland; Jonathan Flatley, Wayne State U; Jennifer Gabrys, U of Cambridge; David Gissen, Parsons School of Design and the New School, New York; Dehlia Hannah, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; Karen Ho, U of Minnesota; Bonnie Honig, Brown U; Frédéric Keck, Laboratory of Social Anthropology (CNRS Paris); Eben Kirksey, Deakin Institute in Melbourne, Australia; Bernard C. Perley, U of British Columbia, Vancouver; Tom Rademacher; Renya Ramirez, U of California, Santa Cruz; Zoe Todd (Métis); Anna Tsing, U of California, Santa Cruz; Sarah E. Vaughn, U of California, Berkeley; Rebecca Wanzo, Washington U; McKenzie Wark, Eugene Lang College, New York City. "By all accounts, 2020 was the longest year in recent memory, as people in the United States and across the globe careened from one unfolding catastrophe to another. This collection assembles a strikingly interdisciplinary group of scholars and thinkers to address how the many crises of 2020-epidemiological, political, ecological, and social-have unfolded, examining their origins and their ongoing effects"--Sharply intelligent, often personal reflections on the global crises of 2020 that are still ongoingBy all accounts, 2020 was the longest year in recent memory, as people in the United States and across the globe careened from one unfolding catastrophe to another. The consequences of this devastating year are sure to impact the planet for decades, if not centuries, to come. This collection considers the question of that long 2020 from the perspective of the lived experience of the year, its long and deep roots in various human and nonhuman pasts, and the transformation of our sense of the future.The Long 2020 assembles a strikingly interdisciplinary group of scholars and thinkers to address how the many crises of 2020―epidemiological, political, ecological, and social―have unfolded, examining both their origins as well as their ongoing effects. The contributors address questions of time, history, and scale as they have played out, and continue to play out; the relationship between home and environment, with a focus on architecture, breathing, and human–nonhuman relations; and the experience of cultural, political, and social life, deploying cultural and political theory to explore questions of race, gender and sexuality, and democracy.The global pandemic has still not abated, reflecting the need to rethink our interrelatedness to viruses and other species. In bringing together this diverse group of authors, The Long 2020 offers a variety of perspectives on the impacts of that fraught year, the effects of which continue to permeate daily life. Cover Page Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction Kronos Chapter 1. The Portal Was Already Here: Epistemological Rupture, Speculation, and Design in the Long 2020 Chapter 2. The Pandemic before the Pandemic Chapter 3. The Present, Tense Chapter 4. A Long History of Pandemics Chapter 5. Environmental Warnings Unheard, from 1962 to 2020 Chapter 6. The Backdrop of the Post-Truth Chapter 7. Crippin’ the Long 2020: As If Disability Matters Chapter 8. The Last Season: The Cruel Optimism of Generic Futurity Chapter 9. The Obduracy of the Event and the Tasks of the Intellectual Oikos Chapter 10. Modern Architecture—Lying Down Chapter 11. Disabling Environment Chapter 12. Ventilation in the Long 2020; or, Open the Window! Chapter 13. Particle Stories: Breathing in the Long 2020 Chapter 14. Air’s Inversions Chapter 15. Freedom’s Just Another Word . . . Chapter 16. The Covid Chronicles: The View from the Virus Chapter 17. Viral Agency and Vulnerability: Rethinking Multispecies Entanglements in the Coronavirus Pandemic Demos Chapter 18. A Tale of Two Protests: Anti-Maskers, Black Lives Matter, and the Specter of Multiracial Democracy Chapter 19. “Everybody Hates the Police”: On Hatred for the Police as a Political Feeling Chapter 20. Who Protects Us from You (Pushing and Pushing and Pushing) Chapter 21. DARVO: The Inversion of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Era of Trump’s Mirror Chapter 22. The Rain of Frogs Chapter 23. The Kids Are OK, Even When Everything Else Is Not Chapter 24. Democracy and the Dignity of Work Chapter 25. From Devastation to Wonder Contributors Index