2020 Presentations (Communicative Events)

Care for the Polis: Ethics of Care and Space (6.18.20)

Tabb, Kathryn; Knoblauch, Joy

Kathryn Tabb, a philosopher, explores the ethical implications of the push to develop precision medicine over general practice and how this shift has exacerbated the current Covid-19 crisis. Joy Knoblauch, an architectural historian, responds to the racial and class history of the term “social distancing” in light of spatial and urban practices.

Care for the Polis is a conversation that exists in a multi-temporal and virtual space, a space designed to reimagine how medical humanities and public humanities shape, and are shaped by, the city and its diverse publics. In a series of weekly Z-Panels, our invited speakers will discuss the effects of health on the conception of cities and publics—including, in the context of pandemic, the foreclosure of public space and what it means to become an online yet domestic-bound public. Together, we will address emerging concerns such as economic impact and recovery, domesticity and democracy, public care and public reconstruction.