In this special COVID-19 episode of the BG Ideas podcast, we talk with Dr. Albert Dzur, professor of political science at BGSU and a Spring 2020 ICS Faculty Fellow. He studies collaborative governance and how citizen engagement with government institutions might impact the opioid crisis.

Transcript:

 

Announcer:

From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, this is BG Ideas.

Intro Music:

I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment.

Jolie Sheffer:

Welcome to the BG Ideas Podcast, a collaboration between the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. I'm Dr. Jolie Sheffer, associate professor of English and American studies and the director of ICS. This is a special episode of the BG Ideas Podcast, which we are recording during the COVID-19 pandemic. That means we're not in the studio, but working via phone and computer. Our sound quality will be different as a result. But now more than ever, I thought it was important to share with you some of the amazing work being done by members of the BGSU community. Even or especially when conditions are challenging, we need to recognize and celebrate great ideas.

Jolie Sheffer:

As always, the opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of BGSU or its employees. Today I'm speaking with Dr. Albert Dzur, a distinguished research professor of political science at BGSU. He studies citizen participation and power-sharing in criminal justice, healthcare, public administration and education. He joins me today to talk about research undergone in spring 2020 as an ICS faculty fellow. This project considers the opioid epidemic, particularly within Ohio, as a wicked problem. Thanks for joining me, Albert. I appreciate your flexibility here.

Albert Dzur:

Thanks for putting this on, Jolie.

Jolie Sheffer:

Obviously, due to COVID-19, a lot has changed in the world since the beginning of the semester. As an ICS faculty fellow, you were already released from teaching and service to focus on research. How has your work in life changed due to the coronavirus restrictions?

Albert Dzur:

So much academic research is already done inside, so as long as you have a good chair, a good table, internet, you can do it anywhere. But there was field work, part of this research, face-to-face interviewing, which is really important. That has to be set aside temporarily. Interlibrary loan services stopped for now and professional talks that I had scheduled on this have been postponed in some cases to one year later. But, I have to say the biggest negative impact is emotional. A lot of people found it very disorienting to have to think about health and wellbeing all the time. It's in the back of our minds all the time. Our loved ones, our friends, our colleagues, right? We care about them, but it's way in the back of our brain,. But this COVID-19 epidemic puts it at the forefront such like you're constantly thinking about it, and if you're a news junkie like myself, you read and listen to the news all the time.

Albert Dzur:

Anyway, I turn on my New York Times app and it's like looking at a gravestone every day. It's really sobering. I mean, I heard an interview the other day on BBC Radio with a woman who had lost her mom to COVID-19, and she was talking about how she had been watching the news on TV, and every day I guess in Britain they have cases, case numbers on the left and mortality rates on the right, and she was just talking very methodically about how she was watching this as an outsider and then one day her mom became one of the numbers on the left, and then a week later her mom became one of the numbers on the right. It was heartbreaking, and it was l

Ver todos los episodios