May 29, 2020 by
A&S News
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect our community and the world, scholars from a range of disciplines across the Faculty of Arts & Science are sharing their expertise on pressing issues in the media — from the need to access public bathrooms to the challenges in making personal decisions as societal restrictions are eased.
Here’s some of what A&S scholars had to say this week.
May 22, 2020
- With the gradual easing of restrictions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the demand for public washrooms has returned. Michael Widener of the Department of Geography & Planning discusses the need for access in NOW Magazine. “Public bathrooms serve a really important public health role in helping people maintain hygiene," says Widener, who is also the Canada Research Chair in transportation and health. "Having access to clean facilities is a key part of the urban planning fabric."
May 23, 2020
- Psychology professor Gillian Einstein comments in a Toronto Sun story about suggestions that men are less likely to wear face masks in public to help curb the spread of COVID-19 due to some seeing it as a sign of weakness. “Some may be linking this to the idea of ‘toxic masculinity,’ in which men are more likely to refuse actions that might indicate vulnerability such as going to the doctor,” Einstein says.
May 24, 2020
- Melissa Williams of the Department of Political Science comments in a Toronto Star story about the anxiety that comes with making new decisions about going out as lockdown restrictions begin to lift. Regarding the suggestion that there is some comfort in having decisions made by others with simple instructions to follow, Williams says, “There is a temptation in times of crisis to revert to top-down, authoritarian styles of governance. Your friend's wish for a 'draconian government' is understandable because the pandemic presents a collective action problem in the classic sense.”
May 25, 2020
- Sean Speer of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy discusses recommendations for economic recovery in Ontario on BNN Bloomberg. Speer notes that Ontario had serious fiscal challenges before the crisis and that those challenges have only been exacerbated.
- Shauna Brail, director of the Urban Studies Program, examines the notion of whether the pandemic could prompt an urban exodus in a Global News story. “There’s a very interesting and controversial debate going on about whether the pandemic finally marks the death of cities,” Brail says. “As soon as things start to move more online and we’re told to stay more and more in our own private spaces, it could be hard to remember why it is we wanted to live in a city in the first place.”