April 29, 2020

Anthropology students at Susquehanna University have premiered an online exhibition Together Apart, a collection of personal accounts regarding the COVID-19 global pandemic.

“Every time I run my Museums & Anthropology course, it culminates with a public exhibition of our work. This year we had to shift to an online exhibition,” said John Bodinger de Uriarte, associate professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology. “Each participant was invited to share thoughts about how adapting to a COVID-19 world has created positive or negative effects.”

The exhibition, which can be found here, features approximately 80 30-second videos. The subjects, who hail from all over the United States and the world, vary from students, many of whom experienced an abrupt end to their college careers, to medical professionals on the front lines of the pandemic.

“One of the videos that stood out to me was from a man working in the medical field saying that he hadn’t hugged his own children in a month,” said Carling Ramsdell ’20, a creative writing major from Burke, Virginia. “Since the time he sent that video to us, he likely hasn’t had physical contact with his family for two months now, which is heartbreaking.”

Visitors to the online exhibition can easily peruse videos in nine categories:

• Finding the Self
• Kith and Kin
• Physically Distant, Socially Connected
• FOMO When the World is Paused
• The Shape of Time
• An Altered Education
• Labor
• Health and Wellness
• A Positive Outlook

“The exhibit is called Together Apart because no one is alone in this crisis. I want people to come away with an understanding that everyone feels similar to how they themselves feel,” Ramsdell said. “Empathy is important right now, and I think we’ve all grown a lot more understanding of one another in just this past month and a half.”