Leenu Sugathan (George Washington University)

Moumita Chowdhury (University of Hyderabad, India)

The process that is central to the development of language is the critical encounter between different groups (marked by their "physical, cognitive, neurological differences," as NeMLA's note on "resilience" suggests) in possession of different kinds of valuation in the course of which "certain words, tones, rhythms, meanings are offered, felt for, tested, confirmed, asserted, qualified, changed" (Keywords 12). This process of evolution/metamorphosis, as demonstrated by Raymond Williams in his Keywords, is often accelerated in periods of unprecedented crisis. This session then is an attempt to trace the changes that the word "resilience" has undergone in the last two years as the world has struggled to cope with the pandemic.

We seek papers that refine or complicate our understanding of the metamorphosis the word "resilience" has undergone during the pandemic. Should resilience simply be understood as a response of the survivors to the immediate crisis at hand (e.g. social distancing, lockdown)? Or, should it be understood in light of the already existing history of resilience against social, political, and economic injustices? How do the experiences of diverse populations (diverse in their socioeconomic status, race, caste, ethnicity, language, disabilities, and gender), further aggravated in times of crisis, force one to rethink the meaning of resilience? What new kinds of relationships or new ways of seeing existing relationships can be located in the metamorphosis of the word "resilience"? How do these changes register themselves in various audio-visual-textual modes (sound albums/installations/maps, art exhibits, murals, graffiti, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, letters) of documenting the pandemic? How has the evolving understanding of resilience impacted our ways of seeing and being as thinkers, scholars, artists, and activists?

We seek papers that trace the ways the changing meaning of the word “resilience” has registered itself in various audio-visual-textual modes (sound albums/installations/maps, art exhibits, murals, graffiti, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, letters) of documenting the pandemic. The purpose of this seminar is to initiate a dialogue as to how the experiences of diverse populations (diverse in their socioeconomic status, race, caste, ethnicity, language, disabilities, and gender), further aggravated in times of crisis, force one to rethink the meaning of resilience. Should resilience simply be understood as a response of the survivors to the immediate crisis at hand (e.g. social distancing, lockdown) or, as a critical response that is shaped by the already existing history of resilience against social, political, and economic injustices?