Three PPLS researchers to collect COVID-19 video diaries from Edinburgh & Lothian residents
Linguistics & English Language researchers Dr Lauren Hall-Lew, Dr Claire Cowie and Dr Catherine Lai to investigate impact of COVID-19 on Edinburgh & Lothian community
Recording Life during a Pandemic: The Lothian Diary Project will investigate questions of public health, media and communication among residents of Edinburgh and the Lothians in relation to COVID-19.
The project draws on individuals’ personal accounts of the pandemic in the form of video diaries recorded during the UK stay-at-home order.
The project was awarded more than £9,300 by the University’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as more than £9,600 from the College’s Knowledge Exchange and Impact fund.
Collecting video diaries
The project will collect individual video diaries contextualising personal lockdown experiences.
The intimate, immediate, and spontaneous nature of video diaries makes them a unique data resource for assessing drivers of individual experience.
- Acceptance, uptake, and adherence to public health measures
- Impacts on mental health
- Fears, anxieties, rumours and stigma
Communicating findings
The online collection of personal video diaries will represent time-sensitive data of individuals' raw experiences, and context-sensitive to aspects of identity, demographics, and background.
The project is partnering with Museums and Galleries Edinburgh, who will archive diaries as part of their COVID-19 Contemporary Collecting, which aims to “record and preserve this significant moment in Edinburgh’s history, so it can be chronicled for future generations,” according to their website.
A report of project findings will also be shared with the COVID-19 Committee at Scottish Parliament.
Interdisciplinary team
Led by Dr Lauren Hall-Lew, the project is made possible by cross-school collaboration among data scientists, linguists, psychotherapists, and political scientists.
In addition to Lauren and PPLS researchers Dr Catherine Lai and Dr Claire Cowie, the interdisciplinary team also includes:
- Dr Beatrice Alex, School of Literature, Languages and Culture and School of Informatics
- Dr Nini Fang, School of Health in Social Science
- Dr Sarah Liu, School of Social and Political Science
- Dr Clare Llewellyn, School of Social and Political Science