I’m excited to announce the MSU Sociolinguistics Lab‘s new project, MI COVID Diaries! The project is led by our new Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Dr. Betsy Sneller. We’re collecting periodic audio diaries from Michigan State residents about their experiences since March 2020. Diarists don’t need any special equipment: They can record themselves for about 10-15 minutes every two weeks (or more or less, as they wish) on a cellphone, laptop or other device. The project team sends an e-mail each week with prompts to respond to like What can you see out of the window right now? Was there anything you had trouble buying in the store this week? Who have you talked to besides immediately family this week and what did you talk about? What’s worrying you the most at the moment? What are you feeling grateful for this week? We’ll also feature excerpts from audio diaries every week. Here are some examples:
Our COVID story started March 10th or so. I had symptoms that I thought were flu symptoms: body aches, extreme headache, dizziness, fever. And I was sick for a couple of days before I went to the ER and my husband drove me there and they brought us to a segregated area of Royal Oak Beaumont because of my symptoms of fever and body aches.
MI-COVID diarist, Week of April 19, 2020
In a way I… I’m glad that it kind of hit me gradually. But I think I was really shocked when I went to Costco and the parking lot was filled, like there was no spot to park. Like you had to wait for a car to back out to get in. And then when I pulled in and got out, there were people and all they had in their carts was toilet paper. And I I was just in shock like what is going on
MI-COVID diarist, Week of April 12, 2020
To learn more or to sign up, click on our logo or go to the project site: mi-covid-diaries.com. You can also follow us on Twitter: @micoviddiaries.