Curator Bio
My name is Abigail Paternina and I am a senior at Northern Arizona University studying Art History with double minors in Museum Studies and Anthropology. Along with my studies, I am the president of the student-run organization Associated Students for Intersectional Feminism (ASIF), and I am a teaching assistant for two classes. In my free time I enjoy drawing, writing, photography, crochet, and roller skating.
After college I will move to New York and pursue a career in the museum field as well as continue with my writing and photography.
I am a teacher’s assistant for Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulacsi and Dr. Gioia Woods, and my project was conceived in the latter’s Pandemic Stories seminar. In the Pandemic Stories seminar we juxtapose literature regarding pandemics (paying close attention to Albert Camus’ The Plague) and our current situation with COVID-19 to try and make sense of it. The culminating project in this class, Pandemic Stories, requires physically-distanced community engagement in which students record stories on life during the C-19 global pandemic.
Along with working as a teacher’s assistant, the president of a club, and my studies, I am interning with Dr. Rebekah Pratt-Sturges participating in the Pandemic Stories project by creating a few oral histories of my own and creating an accompanying website.
Everyone has their own “Pandemic Story.” It is your experience with the lockdown, where you were when the lockdown order was passed, what quarantine was like for you, etc. COVID-19 has had a similar effect that 9/11 had on the populace in this way: for years to come we will always remember where we were and our recollection of this time.
My personal pandemic story began in the heart of it all: New York City. I was in the Big Apple with my best friend and her mom touring prospective universities. I was enjoying the splendor of the city, but in the back of mind felt a looming anxiety. This was right before things with the pandemic really became serious. We were in the city for only 48 hours when we had to rush back home to Arizona in fear that there would be a travel ban. Shortly after, the lockdown was put in place for a quarantine trial of 2 weeks. The university was closed and we were all encouraged to finish the semester at home, classes went online, and 2 weeks quickly became 6 months of COVID tests, having little to no contact with people, sanitizing, sanitizing, sanitizing.
Today it is November 16th 2020 and, whilst businesses, universities, and art museums have more or less “gone back to normal,” the pandemic still surges on, and life as we know it is considerably different. Classes have been hybridized into an in-person and online format, masks are required to be worn everywhere, hand sanitizer continues to fly off the shelves. This is the new normal, and as December nears we are looking at one year of the pandemic and are left to wonder what is in store for us in 2021. We are left questioning, “will this pandemic ever end?” Only time will tell.
