Anke Strauss, Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, Monika Kostera. Writing with silent bodies: a pandemic play in three scenes. Culture and Organization, 2024, Embodied Writing, 30 (3), pp.323-337. ⟨10.1080/14759551.2022.2156505⟩.

The following text is a play co-written as a response to, and a remembrance of, the experiences during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on writing during lockdown that was meant to make sense of our own experiences as academic labourers and those gained from informal conversations with colleagues. Following the conventions and the sensibilities of theatre, the text demands and offers a (re-)embodiment of voices and affectivities that connected those bodies in a situation in which bodies were absent, yet highly present in their vulnerability. We thus invite the readers to treat the text primarily as a stageable drama rather than an academic paper given unusual form. An introduction that belongs to a more classical academic genre expresses our inspirations and relevant points of reference. A short prose coda hints towards some of the insights we have gained by crafting the play.