The Student Body and Covid-19: An Anthropological Perspective on Higher Education Organization During a Pandemic

Taking advantage of a unique moment in history that was the covid-19 pandemic, this dissertation is an attempt to take seriously a university’s decision to be open during a global pandemic. The University of Notre Dame brought back the student body to campus while also transforming the space of campus and the organization of the semesters. The 2020-21 academic year highlighted the importance of bodily dimensions for learning in higher education, both individually and through bodies being brought together (i.e. the student body).

In this dissertation I argue that the organization of space and time are central components of what makes a college campus a particular type of experience. The space of the university is one that brings bodies together and operates at its own rhythm for the purposes of learning and growth. I make sense of this moment by thinking with Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis, which looks at how rhythms within society interact and play off one another. Rhythms consist of time, space, and energy according to Henri Lefebvre. Data was collected through participant observation, interviews, and digital ethnography. To bring out the rhythms of this moment I trace the development of the university campus in the United States historically and then move towards an analysis of the space of Notre Dame’s campus and its transformations during covid-19. I then outline what happened over the course of the 2020-21 academic year and make sense of it through rhythmanalysis. I conclude that covid-19 has highlighted the growing relationship between physical and digital spaces within academia, with discussion of how trends identified in fieldwork are cited in other literature.