In the early phases of the pandemic, it was sometimes hard to find the drive to keep writing. The daily struggle to care for our families, our students, our communities, and ourselves ate at our resolve to complete that chapter, that article, that conference paper. How could our research matter while the world was convulsing? In writing Communities of Care, Talia Schaffer found herself in the opposite position, a space occupied by scholars and researchers thinking about the interrelated social, public-health, and political crises surging to the surface. In Schaffer’s case, the topic was care, and it was suddenly everywhere.

The term proliferated across university and college websites and in memos, press releases, and internal communications. Suddenly, the primary business of higher ed was to care for its students. As points of contact, staff and faculty were enjoined to meet the needs of a grieving population in creative...

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