Reflections on the Pandemic: COVID and Social Crises in the Year Everything Changed is a collection of essays, poems, and artwork that captures the raw energy and emotion of 2020 from the perspective of the Rutgers University community. The project features work from a diverse group of Rutgers scholars, students, staff, and alumni. Reflecting on 2020 from a number of perspectives – mortality, justice, freedom, equality, democracy, family, health, love, hate, economics, history, medicine, science, social justice, the environment, art, food, sanity – the book features contributions by Evie Shockley, Joyce Carol Oates, Naomi Jackson, Ulla Berg, Grace Lynne Haynes, Jordan Casteel, and President Jonathan Holloway, among others. This book, through its rich and imaginative storytelling at the intersection of scholarly expertise and personal narrative, brings readers into the hearts and minds of not just the Rutgers community but the world.

Contributors include: Patricia Akhimie, Marc Aronson, Ulla D. Berg, Stephanie Bonne, Stephanie Boyer, Kimberly Camp, Jordan Casteel, Kelly-Jane Cotter, Mark Doty, David Dreyfus, Adrienne E. Eaton, Katherine C. Epstein, Leah Falk, Paul G. Falkowski, Rigoberto González, James Goodman, David Greenberg, Angelique Haugerud, Grace Lynne Haynes, Leslieann Hobayan, Jonathan Holloway, James W. Hughes, Naomi Jackson, Amy Jordan, Vikki Katz, Mackenzie Kean, Robert E. Kopp, Christian Lighty, Stephen Masaryk, Louis P. Masur, Revathi V. Machan, Yalidy Matos, Belinda McKeon, Susan L. Miller, Yehoshua November, Joyce Carol Oates, Mary E. O’Dowd, Katherine Ognyanova, David Orr,  Gregory Pardlo, Steve Pikiell, Teresa Politano, en Purkert, Nick Romanenko, Evie Shockley, Caridad Svich, and Didier William​.

TERESA POLITANO is an award-winning writer, editor, and educator. In 2022, she won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Personal Essays / Memoir. She is the author of Celebrity Chefs of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press, 2010). She teaches at Rutgers University and is part of the university’s Academic Initiatives team.