This forum draws together scholars across the social sciences and the humanities to address various questions raised or renewed by Covid-19, and its effects on religious and public life globally. Invited contributors mobilize their expertise to help frame public and scholarly understandings of the current moment even as prospects for primary research are constrained at this time. Their insights contribute to developing a research agenda for the study of society during and after pandemic. Topics covered include social inequality and public infrastructure; neoliberalism, sovereignty, and the sacred; punishment, worship, and political responsibility; religious identity and moral crisis; migration, social media, and foreign affairs; ritual practice through digital technologies; and discourses of national emergency. The forum was curated by Mona Oraby, with editorial support from TIF editorial board member Courtney Bender.

To explore the SSRC’s series of initiatives devoted to understanding the coronavirus pandemic’s immediate impact, as well as its lasting consequences, visit https://covid19research.ssrc.org/.