PSC_2000151 169..190 Our fiscal numbers in the state are not catastrophic; neither are they great. Our cases of COVID-19 are spiking in Utah—a state that previously effectively handled the pandemic. Yet, with a US presidential election and the necessarily charged atmosphere resulting from the Black Lives Matter protests, political science enrollments have already set a record for the fall. Political science is not an industry, it is a vocation. We must find ways to help these students navigate the political world that has proven to be far more important in shaping the response to this pandemic than anything else. For department chairs who are handling this emergency situ- ation going forward, I suggest the following six “good-enough” practices: • People care most about their jobs, their health, and their families. Prioritize these when relaying the prospects for cuts or furloughs and for the provisions made by a university or your department in protecting the health (mental, emotional, and physical) and safety of instructors, graduate assistants, and staff. In turn, communicate that any obstacles regarding colleagues’ pay, job security, and health will be attended to immediately. • Consider regular but not too frequent communications to all department instructors, teaching assistants, and staff. Resist the urge to appear “on top” of the situation with constant communication. Less frequent but detailed updates stream- line and summarize the deluge of emails from central admin- istration and also highlight other information that has been shared in town hall meetings between chairs and higher administration. • Avoid the temptation to overdo contingency planning. There will be long-term drawbacks to the good-enough approach; that is, strategic plans will need to be postponed to a more certain time. However, our energy is being sapped daily and relentlessly by this dynamic situation. Even planning for “scenarios” in this fluid time is difficult and borderline quixotic. Furthermore, communicate this reality to higher- ups in your university administrative structure who other- wise consistently use strategic planning. • Teaching evaluations will be haphazard. Flexible instructors likely will be rewarded for their understanding and empath- etic approach to their students and classes. However, stu- dents who feel they are being “shorted” tuition value by the adjusted formats of online teaching during the pandemic may take it out on the instructors in their evaluations. Recognizing that your faculty members also are under pres- sure in various life roles (e.g., instructor, scholar, and parent), advocate for those who are using the good-enough approach in their teaching. Address how course evaluations should be used (or not) in their own assessments and reviews. • If you are at a research institution (as I am), recognize that there is a bifurcation in research productivity happening throughout the academic world. Some scholars are not pro- ducing any research. I am a parent first, a department chair second, and a research scholar third. I am not getting any research done—at all. Yet, other faculty are using this new format as a quasi-sabbatical and accomplishing a lot. Some of this breaks down along gender lines (Weigand et al. 2020). Be sensitive to this and advocate for maximum flexibility for your research faculty regarding timelines for tenure and promotional reviews in the coming years. • Although many colleagues appreciate the flexibility of the good-enough approach, others are perfectionists or prefer a more controlling, confident, and certain approach. I have witnessed this in some of my colleagues. They will be frustrated with this type of leadership, as some are with me. So be it. Doing good enough inevitably entails dealing with the disappointment and disapproval of colleagues. Some of us, however, do not need to be a perfect department chair. We just need to get by. We remain in an emergency situation. The actor with agency, the one securitizing the entire situation, however, remains the virus. Until COVID-19 is resolved or defeated, I am not going to be perfect. I am going to be just good enough.▪ REFERENCES Murphy, Michael P. A. 2020. “COVID-19 and Emergency e-Learning: Consequences of the Securitization of Higher Education for Post-Pandemic Pedagogy.” Contemporary Security Policy 41 (3): 492–505. Schick, Kate. 2012. Gillian Rose: A Good Enough Justice. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press. Wiegand, Krista, Debbie Lisle, Amanda Murdie, and James Scott. 2020. “Journal Submissions in a Time of COVID-19: Is There a Gender Gap?” Duck of Minerva. Available at https://duckofminerva.com/2020/05/journal-submissions-in-times- of-covid-19-is-there-a-gender-gap.html. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: WHAT CAN(’T) WE RESEARCH ABOUT EMERGENCY E-LEARNING? Michael P. A. Murphy, University of Ottawa DOI:10.1017/S1049096520001560 The interventions in this spotlight draw attention to various ways that political science and international relations experi- enced the emergency e-learning transition in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By way of conclusion, I turn to the ques- tions still to be asked about pandemic pedagogy and what lessons it might hold for teaching and learning. Although The university has increasingly expanded the criteria for instructors who want to teach remotely while also being attentive to the importance of student preferences for in-person teaching. The latter shapes enrollments, important for the financial health of the university. All of this has only led to further uncertainty. 188 PS • January 2021 Teac her S potlight: COVID - 19 and Emer g enc y e-Lear ni ng in Political S cience a nd IR ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. https://duckofminerva.com/2020/05/journal-submissions-in-times-of-covid-19-is-there-a-gender-gap.html. https://duckofminerva.com/2020/05/journal-submissions-in-times-of-covid-19-is-there-a-gender-gap.html. thought-provoking and productive for our present reality, the norm/exception logic embedded in analysis of pandemic peda- gogy risks overemphasizing the emergency. In its least harmful form, attention to the emergency nostalgizes the norm1; at worst, overemphasis of deficiencies in the emergency crowd out space in which those in the normal condition might be expressed. The tightrope to be walked in researching pandemic pedagogy is that careful examination is necessary but may blind our analysis to important elements. What Can We Research about Emergency e-Learning? When looking to future directions in emergency e-learning research, several important avenues require exploration. Reflec- tion on pedagogical practice is an important part of the scholar- ship of teaching and learning (SoTL) because it draws out the lessons learned from the perspective of the agents of change in the classroom. Simply stated, because the professor plans the course, sharing the professor’s perspective can assist other pro- fessors in similar situations. However, this is only one way of “doing SoTL,” and it captures only one particular qualitative form of empirical material. Many institutions are collecting student-experience surveys, which surely will provide new quan- titative material to provide general insights into another per- spective. However, a fuller understanding of emergency e-learning experiences will be possible only through systematic research com- bining approaches. This type of in-depth analysis is particularly important to recognize barriers to access and other unequal experiences of emergency e-learning. Pre-pandemic, laptop ownership (Reisdorf, Triwibowo, and Yankelevich 2020) and technology maintenance and dependability (Gonzales, Calarco, and Lynch 2020) already pointed out how socioeconomic barriers lead to an unequal experience of postsecondary education. In the age of emergency e-learning, when laptops and dependable connections are not only necessary for assignments and reading but also for the course experience, the socioeconomic barrier increases. Racial- ized inequality in emergency e-learning is another important topic; previous e-learning researchers have found that—even beyond the economic digital divide—“access does not solve nor provide equitable learning conditions” on its own (Oztok 2020, 112). The extent to which emergency e-learning reproduces institutional and systemic racial inequalities merits careful attention. Greater attention is necessary to understand how economically disadvantaged communities—as well as other populations with access and dependability issues including rural areas—experienced emergency e-learning and how supports might best be designed in preparation for future pandemics (or future waves of COVID-19). The mental health impacts of COVID-19 and emergency e-learning are further important considerations for future research. Halladay et al. (2020) suggest that the quality of student–teacher relationships may support students’ decisions to seek out mental health treatment, which would be especially important during the pandemic. Preliminary evidence suggests that postsecondary students faced higher levels of anxiety, stress, depression, and substance use during COVID-19 (Charles et al. 2020). However, the emergency e-learning environment—even in a synchronous format—is a less-personal connection than face-to- face instruction. The combination of increased mental health symptoms with less classroom contact is an important consider- ation for pedagogical planning. Finally, institutional responses to COVID-19 emergency e-learning have proceeded largely on an institution-by-institution basis, and the effectiveness of this policy-making strategy requires attention that political science and international relations may be uniquely able to provide. In contrast with the collaborative response to Hurricane Katrina—in which the so-called Sloan Semester brought many institutions together to offer a catalog of online courses to affected students (Tarantelli 2008)—emer- gency e-learning responses to COVID-19 occurred largely on an institution-by-institution or system-by-system basis. What Can’t We Research about Emergency e-Learning? Increasing the attention to the exceptionality of emergency e-learning, however, comes at a cost. Examining the deficiencies, inequalities, and barriers of emergency e-learning as exceptional experiences obscures the deficiencies, inequalities, and barriers that exist in the normal arrangements of educational systems (Murphy 2020, 502). Despite specific attention being warranted to this exceptional experience of emergency e-learning, it is important that its difference from the normal condition not be overstated. The digital divide, racial inequality, policy coordin- ation, and other issues are not limited to the case of COVID-19 responses. It is our hope that this spotlight’s presentation of various perspectives will provide insights as professors and administrators prepare for an uncertain future of COVID-19. We also hope that it sparks a broader conversation and research project into the politics of the classroom, in both exceptional and normal times.▪ NOTE 1. I thank Heather Smith for pointing out this tendency at the Women in Inter- national Security—Toronto Twitter Conference. REFERENCES Charles, Nora E., Stephanie J. Strong, Lauren C. Burns, Margaret R. Bullerjahn, and Katherine M. Serafine. 2020. Increased Mood Disorder Symptoms, Perceived Stress, and Alcohol Abuse among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic. PsyArXiv. Available at https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rge9k. Gonzalez, Amy L., Jessica McCrory Calarco, and Teresa Lynch. 2020. “Technology Problems and Student Achievement Gaps: A Validation and Extension of the Technology Maintenance Construct.” Communication Research 47 (5): 750–70. Halladay, Jillian, Kathryn Bennett, Mark Weist, Michael Boyle, Ian Manion, Matthew Campo, and Katholiki Georgiades. 2020. “Teacher–Student Relationships and Mental Health Help Seeking Behaviours among Elementary and Secondary Students in Ontario, Canada.” Journal of School Psychology 81:1–10. Murphy, Michael P. A. 2020. “COVID-19 and Emergency e-Learning: Consequences of the Securitization of Higher Education for Post-Pandemic Pedagogy.” Contemporary Security Policy 41 (3): 492–505. Oztok, Murat. 2020. The Hidden Curriculum of Online Learning: Understanding Social Justice through Critical Pedagogy. London: Routledge. Reisdorf, Bianca C., Whisnu Triwibowo, and Aleksandr Yankelevich. 2020. “Laptop or Bust: How Lack of Technology Affects Student Achievement.” American Behavioural Scientist 64 (7): 927–49. Tarantelli, Thomas L. 2008. “Lessons from Katrina: The Response of Higher Education to Assist Students Impacted by the Storm.” State University of New York–Albany: PhD Dissertation. PS • January 2021 189 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rge9k SPOTLIGHT CONTRIBUTORS Oumar Ba is assistant professor of political science at Morehouse College. He can be reached at oumar. ba@morehouse.edu. Delton T. Daigle is associate professor and director of online learning at the Schar School of Policy & Government at George Mason University. He can be reached at ddaigle@gmu.edu. Rebecca A. Glazier is associate professor of political science in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She can be reached at raglazier@ualr.edu. Emma Hutchison is associate professor and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia. She can be reached at e.hutchison@uq.edu.au. Eric D. Loepp is assistant professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, and co-guest editor of this spotlight. He can be reached at loeppe@uww.edu. Stéphanie Martel is assistant professor of political studies at Queen’s University and a fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy. She can be reached at stephanie.martel@queensu.ca. Michael P. A. Murphy is SSHRC doctoral fellow and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, and an associate member of the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research Unit. He also served as co-guest editor of this spotlight. He can be reached at michaelpa.murphy@uottawa.ca. John LaForest Phillips is associate professor of political science and public management at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. He can be reached at phillipsj@apsu.edu. Ayesha Ray is associate professor of political science at King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA. She can be reached at ayesharay@kings.edu. Joseph W. Roberts is associate professor of politics and international relations at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI. He can be reached at jroberts@rwu.edu. Serena Rourke is a student of political studies at Queen’s University. Brent J. Steele is the Francis D. Wormuth Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah and chair of the department. He can be reached at brent.steele@utah.edu. Aaron Stuvland is a PhD candidate at the Schar School of Policy & Government at George Mason University. He can be reached at astuvlan@gmu.edu. Taiyi Sun is assistant professor of political science at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. He can be reached at taiyi.sun@cnu.edu. Jennie Sweet-Cushman is associate professor of political science at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. She can be reached at jsweetcushman@chatham.edu. Sydney Wade is a student of political studies at Queen’s University. Munro Watters is a student of political studies at Queen’s University. 190 PS • January 2021 Teac her S potlight: COVID - 19 and Emer g enc y e-Lear ni ng in Political S cience a nd IR ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1729-0759 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6948-3168 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1121-152X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7519-2746 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3035-5967 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7694-2243 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9523-4402 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4968-295X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6414-3316 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0596-5237 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3679-6824 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2407-6686 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5806-5830 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2652-5713