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UT Community COVID-19 Archive Project

The UT Community COVID-19 Archive Project gathers and digitally preserves artifacts in a variety of media which will be made available in the Macdonald-Kelce Library Digital Collections.


The Archive is live. Browse the collection here.


Read about the project below, tell us your story, or submit original materials to the archive.

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What is the UT Community COVID-19 Archive Project?


We are living through unprecedented shared trauma. The COVID-19 pandemic is a major historical event affecting all aspects of society and every individual in unique and personal ways. Facing the ramifications of quarantine, isolation, and job loss, we know that the coronavirus has significantly changed how we live our lives, and that some of those changes will endure. The pandemic has highlighted the racial and economic disparities apparent in U.S. society and brought the issues of equity and inclusion to the forefront of local and national discourse.

College students, faculty, and staff are experiencing the pandemic through the lens of higher education and dealing with issues related to education, pedagogy, college operations, race, class, finances, family, social life, and mental health, among many others. Our perspectives and experiences are unique and will be of interest to future historians. The UT Community COVID-19 Archive Project will gather and digitally preserve artifacts in a variety of media which will be made available in the Macdonald-Kelce Library Digital Collections by Fall 2021.

We invite UT students, faculty, and staff to contribute your work and share your experiences. See below on how to submit a self-guided interview. See the "Submit Your Work" page for directions on how to submit photographs, stories, artwork, and other documentation.

This project was conceived in Fall 2020 by Jenica Ibarra, and managed by Leslie Vega. Questions? Contact Leslie Vega at lvega@ut.edu


Share Your Story


The Self-Guided Interview Form below will walk you through answering a variety of questions related to your pandemic experiences. You'll agree to allow the Macdonald-Kelce Library to preserve and share your story. Submissions will not be available to the public immediately. When they are, they will be available in an exhibit of our digital collections.

Self-Guided Interview Form

This is a collection of your personal experiences - a community archive. We ask that you use your real name and give us a true account of your experience. These stories will be useful to future scholars. Your story will be kept in our digital archives and will be available to anyone interested in personal responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

If you'd like to review the interview questions, take a look at the pdf below:

If you'd like to submit other kinds of materials (photographs, poems, etc.) click here.


Chronology

Here's a brief chronology to jog your memory:

  • January 20, 2020: 1st CDC-confirmed COVID-19 case in the U.S.
  • March 1, 2020: 1st officially-reported COVID-19 case in Florida.
  • March 8-15, 2020: UT Spring Break.
  • March 16, 2020: UT went to fully online classes.
  • Fall 2020 - Spring 2021: UT began the new academic year with hybrid classes, both in-person and remote.
  • December 2020: The first person in the US receives Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. At this point, one out of every 1,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
  • February 2021: Over half a million Americans are dead from the novel coronavirus.
  • Summer-Fall 2021: The Delta variant has rapidly spread and is causing a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths in the US and the world.
  • August 23, 2021: FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech
    For archived data and population analysis, see The Atlantic's The COVID Tracking Project. There are many other resources to check for current data. The Johns Hopkins Resource Center is a good place to start.

Thank You


Contributions from The University of Tampa community are deeply appreciated. Materials such as these are valuable for understanding the depth and breath of a historic event, and will hopefully build understanding of shared experience.


 

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