- INTRO: THE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH HUB (00:00)
Professor Susanna Trnka explains what a university based research hub is, what it does and the project she was working on when COVID-19 arrived in New Zealand.
- THE LINK BETWEEN COVID & POLITICAL CRISIS (02:40)
We discuss states of emergency, political upheaval and crisis and how research can help frame personal understandings and experiences.
- TRAVERSING – A 30 YEAR RESEARCH JOURNEY (05:05)
Professor Susanna Trnka shows how her latest book, Traversing took 30 years of observations before she wrote it, and the copies were held up in lockdown.
- ONE BLUE CHILD- POLITICS AND ASTHMA (07:53)
We talk about her previous book, One Blue Child, a comparison of asthma responses and activism in New Zealand versus in the Czech Republic. And it really was quite an endeavour of comparison.
- THE START OF THE RESEARCH HUB (11:00)
Susanna Trnka talks about how the Pandemics Research Hub started and who came on board.
- CHANGING RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES (14:14)
We discuss the heart of anthropology’s core methodologies as a conversation, and the importance of positionality.
- ACADEMICS IN THE PUBLIC EYE (17:00)
Social scientists and academics have insights into nuanced social processes – we talk about why people are interested to hear more and Professor Susanna Trnka’s work in this space.
- LOCKDOWN BUBBLES (21:05)
Susanna talks about the work she did on lockdown bubbles as part of an international collaboration with CARUL: Care and Responsibility Under Lockdown.
- DIGITAL HEALTH WITH CHILDREN (23:27)
Professor Trnka outlines her new Marsden funded book project, that examines the self-management of health that young people are engaged in, but also these exchanges and interactions that occur around their own health and the health of others.
- ESSAY ON STATE-CITIZEN RELATIONS (26:30)
The three different phases of New Zealand’s lockdown and what insights this offers into the idea of “top-down” states of emergency.
- COMPETING RESPONSIBILITIES (34:05)
Professor Susanna Trnka and Dr Pauline Herbst discuss her 2017 book Competing responsibilities, co-authored with Dr Catherine Trundle and how ideas of responsibility, self-management and care are transforming during COVID.
- ZOMBIE FILMS AND SENSE OF TIME (38:55)
Why were people watching so many zombie movies during lockdown? How can this be escapist and what does literary theorist Mikhael Bakhtin have to do with it all?
- TIME “SPENT WELL” – THE SELF AS A PROJECT (46:05)
Young people’s focus on what they should be doing during a lockdown and how this links to ideas of self-management.
- RESEARCH HUB WRAP (49:00)
We talk about the importance of truly interdisciplinary spaces and the role the Pandemics Research Hub played in looking at this pivotal historic moment.
Mentioned in this episode:
Guest: Professor Susanna Trnka. https://www.susannatrnka.com/
Research centre: Pandemics Hub – Past, Present, Future (https://pandemicsresearch.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/pandemics-reflected/)
Books & Journals:
Trnka, Susanna. 2020. Traversing. Embodied Lifeworlds in the Czech Republic. (https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501749223/traversing/)
Trnka, Susanna. 2017. One Blue Child: Asthma, Responsibility, and the Politics of Global Health. Stanford University Press.(https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27911)
Trnka, Susanna. & Trundle, Catherine. 2017. Competing Responsibilities: The Ethics and Politics of Contemporary Life. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822373056
Matthewman, Steve. (2022). A Research Agenda for COVID-19 and Society. Edward Elgar. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-research-agenda-for-covid-19-and-society-9781800885134.html
Anthropological Forum. Imagination, the Ordinary and the Extraordinary: COVID-19 in Aotearoa/New Zealand (Two-part Special Issue for Anthropological Forum) https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/canf20/current
Scholars mentioned:
Ms Miriama Aoake. Cambridge University. https://www.universitiesnz.ac.nz/latest-news-and-publications/bumper-crop-scholarship-winners-headed-cambridge
Dr Rochelle Menzies. https://www.telethonkids.org.au/contact-us/our-people/m/rochelle-menzies/
Prof. Susanna Trnka. University of Auckland. https://www.susannatrnka.com/covid-19
Prof. Michael Baker. Otago University. https://www.otago.ac.nz/wellington/departments/publichealth/staff/otago024831.html
Assoc. Prof. Nicholas Long. The London School of Economics and Political Science. https://www.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/nicholas-long
Prof. Nikolas Rose. https://www.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/nicholas-long
Prof. Giorgio Agamben. https://egs.edu/biography/giorgio-agamben/
Ms Sanchita Vyas. https://www.digitalmentalhealth.co.nz/research-assistants/
Mikhael Bakhtin. Mikhael Bakhtin
Dr. Jacqui Bay: https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/j-bay