Pandemic Thoughts: Life in the Times of COVID-19

Abstract

Abstract“Pandemic Thoughts” comprises five parts. In the first part, section editors Esra Ari and Ozlem Atar discuss the significance of storytelling as an empowering process. They assess immigrants’ acts of writing their stories as a part of the decolonization process in migration studies. In this part, the authors also engage in a process of reflexivity and share their statement of positionality, which shapes the rest of the chapter. They express where they stand individually in relation to creative scholars whose reflexive writings have inspired them and the StOries Project participants with whom they have collaborated. The second part surveys the differential impacts of the recent pandemic on various groups, with a specific focus on migrants and racialized groups. The third section elaborates on autoethnography as a method of inquiry. The fourth section highlights key themes in individual contributions. Considering thematically related entries together, the editors make references to relevant extant research. The final section presents the pandemic stories of the StOries Project in the order discussed by the editors.