%0 Journal Article
%A Gourlay, Lesley
%D 2022
%F discovery:10143552
%I Informa UK Limited
%J Learning, Media and Technology
%K Screens, asynchronous teaching, pandemic, Goffman, masks
%N 3
%P 398-406
%T Digital masks: screens, selves and symbolic hygiene in online higher education
%U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10143552/
%V 47
%X Given the central role of digital devices and screens in academic work, their use and our relationship to them are under-theorised in mainstream research into digital education. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, rendered the use of digital screens central to life in ‘lockdowns’. This paper will consider the relationships between digital screens and anti-epidemic face masks, considering these artefacts in terms of functionality, academic subjectivities and epistemic practices, drawing on sociomaterial perspectives, Goffman's categories of lecturing self, and the history of anti-epidemic mask-wearing. I illustrate this with a vignette of teaching via digital screens, given by a member of faculty in an interview study exploring the impact of the lockdown on university staff. It will conclude that the digital screen may be viewed as a ‘digital mask’; carrying out a practical function, but also performing an ideology of hygiene and reason. The implications for digital higher education post-pandemic are discussed.
%Z This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.