The world is going through an unprecedented time of isolation, with millions of people in the past months living under enforced restrictions of movement. Along with this isolation comes a range of negative emotions, such as loneliness, depression and lethargy. However, isolation has been actively chosen by many different types of people of past ages to enhance, rather than detract, from the fullness of their lives.
Practitioners of elective isolation have something to offer to those millions of people currently under enforced isolation. It is our hope that these reflections from across the humanities might provide tools to cope with, and flourish under, isolation. This project offers hope that our emotional response can be modulated into a positive key, taking control over isolation by actively interpreting it with new models.
Clicking on the titles below will take you to video presentations by a range of scholars. Each scholar reflects on how their own area of research provides new ways of thinking about this unusual time of isolation (about 10 minutes each). The videos are accompanied by responses in the inner ring (about 5 minutes each). You can also access the videos via links provided below in the 'Participants' section.
Participants:
The Emotions of Isolation Project is led by Dr Dawn LaValle Norman, ACU Node, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.
Friendship
Alda Balthrop-Lewis (Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Respondent: Benjamin Moffitt (Senior Lecturer in Politics, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Despair
Ben DeSpain (Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Lifeline Australia
12 11 14
https://www.unitingwesley.org.au/lifeline
Drugs and Substance Abuse
https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/community/health-support-services/health-services/Pages/drugs-and-substance-abuse.aspx
Respondent: Michael Barbezat (Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Comfort
Katie Barclay (Associate Professor in History, The University of Adelaide) [link to video]
Respondent: Kylie Crabbe (Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Communion
Jack Norman (Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Respondent: Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer (Lecturer in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Embodiment
Fay Bound Alberti (Reader in History, University of York) [link to video]
Respondent: Joy Damousi (Director, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Waiting
Lisa Baraitser (Professor of Psychosocial Theory, Birkbeck, University of London) and Laura Salisbury (Professor in Medicine and English Literature, University of Exeter) [link to video]
Respondent: Matthew Champion (Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Location
Dawn LaValle Norman (Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Respondent: Rachel Teubner (Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Solitude
David Vincent (Emeritus Professor of Social History, Open University) [link to video]
Respondent: David Newheiser (Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University) [link to video]
Image: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1817). Wikimedia Commons
