Life in the Time of Coronavirus. 14# Arts and 'Familiar Alien Threats'

Welcome to the fourteenth podcast in our series ‘Life in the Time of Coronavirus’. Here Ama de-Graft Aikins, British Academy Global Professor in the Institute of Advanced Studies at UCL, and a social psychologist researching chronic illness and experiences of care in African contexts, considers how artists are shaping current understandings of Covid-19 in Ghana. She situates contemporary responses to Coronavirus in relation to previous pandemics, specifically the Global Flu Pandemic of 1918 as well as the ongoing HIV crisis. Art, she argues provides a space of knowledge production, critical engagement and potential healing in the face of the threat to life and livelihood posed by the virus. Music by Smallhaus. Sound effects by the BBC Sound Archive. ​​​ Speaker: Ama de-Graft Aikins(UCL) Produced and edited by Albert Brenchat-Aguilar Communications by Patricia Mascarell Llombart Executive Producer: Tamar Garb