Humanities in the Time of COVID-19: A Virtual Discussion

On May 28, 2020, a virtual panel of Georgetown humanities scholars moderated by Dean Christopher Celenza discussed the role of the humanities in this most distinctive of times. The topic was “Humanities in the Time of COVID-19: What Literature, Ethics, and the Arts Can Teach us in a Quarantine Environment.” Professors Karen Stohr (Department of Philosophy), Cóilín Parsons (Department of English), Andrew Sobanet (Department of French and Francophone Studies), and Nicoletta Pireddu (Department of Italian and Inaugural Director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative) took French novelist Albert Camus’s 1947 novel The Plague as the point of departure to address how literature, philosophy, history, and the arts can help us understand ourselves in relation to the world, foster empathy and a sense of connection in times of crisis, and help people make everyday ethical decisions. Watch the webinar below.