“And Then COVID-19 Happened”: Impacts of the Pandemic on Hazard and Disaster Researchers
Abstract
There is a limited but growing body of literature on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic faculty, scholars, and researchers in the US and around the world. In this article, we present findings of a US-based study conceived in 2020 at the onset of COVID-19. In it, we focus on ways in which the pandemic has affected the professional and personal lives of hazard and disaster researchers from the social sciences, public health, engineering, and other fields who started to examine social dimensions of COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic. Data are drawn from a systematic, qualitative, longitudinal study in which we gathered data at two points in time across approximately 18 months between the summer of 2020 and spring of 2022. Thirty interviewees in the first phase of the study and 18 interviewees in the second phase shared their experiences navigating the challenges of conducting pandemic-related research while themselves working in the pandemic environment. Through their rich narratives, study participants provided a range of perspectives. With respect to their professional lives, they described issues associated with social isolation, working from home, using digital platforms to conduct research and business, and shifts to online teaching, among other things. At a personal level, they discussed challenges of childcare and caregiving, as well as living in a generally stressful environment. We conclude by offering a number of suggestions for policy-makers and decision-makers to consider in the event of future events such as COVID-19.
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Data Availability Statement
All data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. This includes redacted (without interviewees’ names) transcripts from Phase 1 and Phase 2 data.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to our interviewees who took valuable personal and professional time—especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—to share their experiences and insights. This research was supported by the Department of Sociology at Oklahoma State University and with funding from the Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. We also express thanks to the National Science Foundation–funded Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) network and the CONVERGE facility at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder (NSF Award #1841338) for seed funding for this study. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF, SSEER, or CONVERGE.
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Published In
Natural Hazards Review
Volume 25 • Issue 1 • February 2024
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 29, 2022
Accepted: Jul 10, 2023
Published online: Oct 11, 2023
Published in print: Feb 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Mar 11, 2024
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