The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our society and how we may recover from it will be explored by University of Leeds academics in a series of online sessions.
The live and interactive discussions, which will take place over YouTube, will explore crucial subjects such as inequalities in healthcare and the impact of the pandemic on disabled people, as well as the role of the community and the knock-on effects for the criminal justice system.
Academics will examine the lessons society has learned and the lasting impact of the pandemic.
Dr Tom Campbell, Associate Professor in Social Theory, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has ignited a global crisis that has run through our social, political and legal institutions.
“All of our lives have been touched by the enormous social upheaval it has caused. In this series of live sessions, experts from the Faculty of Social Sciences will work to begin to understand the inequalities that underlie the pandemic; government and community responses to the crisis and its ongoing social effects; emergent ideas for how we should live together and organise and regulate society in a world changed by the pandemic and its wide-reaching social effects.”
The three sessions take place next week. Further sessions will be announced in the new year.
COVID-19 and Health Inequality
Date/time: Tuesday 8 December, 4pm-4.45pm
Presenters: Nick Emmel, Professor of Social Research Methodology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, and Dr Tom Campbell, Associate Professor in Social Theory
Discussion: Compelling evidence emerged of significant inequalities in health outcomes, with BAME groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19 – but reports describing these inequalities have avoided explanations of likely causes. The session will investigate how experiences of COVID-19 relate to existing health equalities and how society might better understand them through an investigation of the social determinants of health.
Find out more about the COVID-19 and Health Inequality session and how to tune in.
COVID-19 and Communities
Date/time: Wednesday 9 December, 3pm-3.45pm
Presenters: Dr Andrew Wallace, University Academic Fellow in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, and Dr Tom Campbell, Associate Professor in Social Theory
Discussion: The pandemic led to the creation of mutual aid groups and neighbourhood networks to support people who were self-isolating or shielding. The session will explore what kind of solidarities these groups represented within increasingly divided contemporary societies. The session will consider if, how and whether ‘mutual aid’ should be a feature of everyday community life.
Find out more about the COVID-19 and Communities session and how to tune in.
COVID-19 and Disability
Date/time: Thursday 10 December, 3pm-3.45pm
Presenters: Dr Miro Griffiths, Leverhulme Research Fellow in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, and Dr Tom Campbell, Associate Professor in Social Theory
Discussion: Using current research and data into the impact of the pandemic on disabled people, the session will consider how, globally, disabled people are subjected to hostile and violent policies that result in the withdrawal of healthcare provision, a promotion of institutionalisation and extensive infringements of disabled people’s human rights. It will explore how disabled people and groups are influencing the policy-making process and consider alternative, possible and preferable policy responses to support disabled people through the pandemic.
Find out more about the COVID-19 and Disability session and how to tune in.
Further information
- Picture: Pixabay
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