Viral Pedagogical Narratives: Artistic Expressions of Living During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Launched in April 2020 as a curated, online, archival gallery, Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 serves as a health humanities–based artefact of digital archaeology, containing the creative writing and visual art of Pennsylvanians made during the pandemic. This platform, created through an interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, staff, and students at the Pennsylvania State University, features works from a diverse cross-section of individuals representing various genders, races, ethnicities, ages, socioeconomic statuses, languages, and abilities. As such, Viral Imaginations, accessible at viralimaginations.psu.edu, offers insights into how the arts and the humanities are crucial to human flourishing and collective healing during times of compounded global crisis. Viral Imaginations’ historical, artistic narratives, spanning a trajectory of experiences, easily engage students and teachers in analysis, dialogue, and reflection. To serve these educational needs, Viral Imaginations also features scalable pedagogical resources that aided educators in coherently pivoting amid crisis. Vetted in K-12 and university-level courses, as well as in various workshops, these innovative, just-in-time lesson plans acknowledged the challenges and collective trauma of living in these times.