Returning to normal and the office? I am not so sure.

Abstract

As August approached I was looking forward to a return to campus and teaching my fall class to our University’s seniors. I had the foresight (i.e. blind luck) to not commit to teaching in the 2020-2021 academic year and was happy to have dodged that bullet. The course I teach is a highly personal and interactive one and I couldn’t imagine fostering the same connections for the class while we were all masked and socially distant. But just a couple of weeks ago while prepping for class, looking forward to seeing my colleagues at the Center in-person, and discarding the masks that were scattered everywhere on the homefront, life took yet another unexpected turn.