A Pandemic Retrospective

Abstract

Who could have imagined 2 years ago that we would still be in a global pandemic? COVID-19 has undoubtedly changed how we as journalism educators and scholars do our job: from teaching remote classes and participating in online faculty meetings to attending virtual conferences and limiting research travel and face-to-face data collection. The pandemic has shown us the importance of staying connected as a community and unearthed some systemic inequalities regarding digital access, inclusive practices, and flexible work policies (UMass ADVANCE, 2020). It is essential to acknowledge that such structural barriers have had an uneven impact across different groups, genders, ethnicities, types of academic institutions, and locations (Mickey et al., 2020). Ultimately, the pandemic has taught us to be adaptable and resilient and offered us novel perspectives on coping better with the new global reality in our personal and professional lives.