The COVID-19 Community Archiving Project ended its submission phase on January 1, 2022. Links to the submission form below have been removed, but the original content of this page remains untouched.

 

All of us in the Harvard community—faculty, students, administrators, staff, researchers, alumni, and others – are experiencing a sudden, world-changing event: the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic.

We are all acting in some way to combat this pandemic by helping individuals, communities, and society to stay safe, stay calm, and feel supported in an uncertain time. This can take various forms such as:

  • researching the virus for treatment and a cure
  • providing economic and legal advice to maintain infrastructure
  • working on technologies and social support systems
  • teaching and learning remotely
  • supporting research, teaching, and learning
  • keeping the University on course
  • finding creative ways  to keep people calm and hopeful while we wait out our physical distancing and yearn for a cure

Years from now, historians, future students and scholars, doctors and scientists, public policy and health experts, Harvard administrators, and others will want to understand and learn about  how our community reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how we were able to respond, both at Harvard and, with others, in helping to support the broader world.  Even now, we are learning from Harvard's experiences during the 1918 flu pandemic, documented in the collections of the Harvard University Archives.

The COVID-19 Community Archiving Project has been created by the Harvard University Archives to document the broad Harvard community’s experience of this event. We hope to learn about your recent and daily experience; on campus, in the lab, in the field, at home, or elsewhere. The Community Archive is a means to collect and record  what we witnessed, what we experienced, and how we responded to this crisis.

Help the Harvard University Archives document the COVID-19 pandemic and build a Community Archive by contributing your own experiences.

Students

Tell us what is like to be the first group of Harvard students dealing with a pandemic in 100 years. How are you sustaining your studies and your relationships during this period of social distancing and self-quarantine?

Faculty

What was it like to suddenly shift to remote instruction and learning?  How has this had an impact on your research and other academic work? Tell us how you have adapted to this change in your work, and in fostering your relationships with colleagues and your students.

Staff

What is the experience of suddenly and abruptly moving to remote work? What are you doing to support your colleagues and others at the University? What ingenious ways have you found to continue with regular University business in this time?

Alumni & Others

Are you an essential employee who is holding everything together right now? Are you at home juggling caring for your kids with working remotely? How has life changed for you? What has your experience been in your communities—how have things changed?

Questions? We have compiled some frequently asked questions, and we are happy to communicate directly with you as well.