The global pandemic is generating a great deal of thinking among scholars broadly interested in the social and cultural implications of Covid-19. In order to provide a forum for early observations and reflections on the pandemic as it unfolds, the editors of Cultural Anthropology—Christopher Nelson, Heather Paxson, and Brad Weiss—are editing an open-ended collection on the global pandemic.

How to Submit

We are not accepting submissions at this time. Another call for papers may be announced here at a later date.

The Danger of a Single Threat

The Danger of a Single Threat

In a well-known public talk, the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie details the danger of letting a single story define a world. Collective experience d... More

Buying Bread in Santiago, Chile: Engaging with Documents in Times of Pandemic

Buying Bread in Santiago, Chile: Engaging with Documents in Times of Pandemic

“My application got accepted, I can go to the bakery!” announced my father, excited that he’d be able to go buy bread after one week of strict confinement. He h... More

Quarantine Urban Ecologies

Quarantine Urban Ecologies

As of April 2020, billions of people around the world are living under differing degrees of physical confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, reshaping the way... More

Caring for Italy: The Solidarity of Filipino Women Workers

Caring for Italy: The Solidarity of Filipino Women Workers

Eight weeks into Italy’s countrywide lockdown, Covid-19 has quickly become more than a question of health. It is a question of livelihood. On March 22, 2020, Gi... More

Digital Learning

Digital Learning

Digital learning could imply hands-on learning, a physical engagement of bodies and fingers (digits) finding out how to do something. But mostly it implies, par... More

Missing the Revolution with Covid-19: On Hindsight and Ethnographic Expertise

Missing the Revolution with Covid-19: On Hindsight and Ethnographic Expertise

Covid-19 was a revolution that I should have seen coming. In his classic Cultural Anthropology article, “Missing the Revolution,” Orin Starn (1991) argues that... More

Religion, Law, and Bolsonaro’s Decree on Essential Services

Religion, Law, and Bolsonaro’s Decree on Essential Services

The corona virus pandemic has raised wide-ranging questions on the limits of religious freedoms in a global health crisis. While religious gatherings have acted... More

Covid-19, (In)visible Mothers, and the State

Covid-19, (In)visible Mothers, and the State

I called Yesenia on a Tuesday afternoon, but she didn’t answer. My number wouldn’t be familiar to her, as I wasn’t her son’s teacher, nor was I employed by the ... More

Crowd, Contagion, Corona

Crowd, Contagion, Corona

In early March 2020, weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic locked down much of Bangladesh, I was told a story by a friend, clearly in jest. A violent crowd had bea... More

The Irruption of Care, or Facing a Pandemic in Times of Revolution

The Irruption of Care, or Facing a Pandemic in Times of Revolution

No sintai miedo, si gracias a la Primera Línea nosotros podemos marchar. Si no fuese por ellos, no existiría la marcha.—Stefan Kramer “Don’t be afraid, it’s th... More