I share similar questions that Duygu, Nadine, and James ask about transnational science, public health and pedagogy and temporality. COVID19 forces a palimpsestic-kaleidoscopic vision upon us. We think about mortality, erasure, continuity, and significance in a highly collective and concentrated way. As we go forward in this project, I want to think about:
How can transnational STS (however conceived) interface scientific and political education?
Through this question, I would like to make visible efforts at bridging gaps in data, thinking, practice. For example, this public database of reported deaths due to the lockdown in India (starvation and financial distress, exhaustion, accidents during migration, lack or denial of medical care, suicides, police brutality, crimes, and alcohol-withdrawal) maintained by three activists-researchers goes beyond politics of visibility and maps compound vulnerabilities. What kind of support would these researchers need from our project? How can we build upon their work? The Data Working Group with Tim and Ina would be appropriate to think about data infrastructures and gaps part of this question. We would welcome people to think with us on these questions.
I would also like to extend this work through an India Working Group (beginnings of an essay) which will grapple with transnational, regional and local politics through potential collaborations.
