Despite the many changes that have marked the evolution of mental health work for more than a century, including the existence of teletherapy options, until very recently the default modality of treatment was in person. It was only after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that remote modalities became widely adopted and legitimated. This has turned what was the norm before into one option within a broader spectrum of possibilities. Historical discontinuities of this kind make more visible to the analyst social and technological configurations that were less visible before as actors reexamine previously taken-for-granted processes and assumptions, and develop new procedures and rationales for them. This also helps better perceive connections that tie work to larger societal dynamics. In this seminar, I will draw upon preliminary analyses from an ongoing ethnographic study of the digitization of mental health work in Argentina to argue that focusing on the historical discontinuity in modalities of treatment makes it possible to understand related discontinuities regarding inequality and culture that have been less salient in the relevant scholarship.

Pablo J. Boczkowski has doctorates in clinical psychology (Universidad de Belgrano, 1994) and science and technology studies (Cornell University, 2001). He completed a four-year interdisciplinary residency in mental health at the Alvear Hospital Buenos Aires, Argentina, before moving to the United States to retrain in S&TS. He was an assistant professor at MIT from 2001 until 2005, and since then has been at Northwestern University, where he currently is Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani professor in the department of communication studies. His research program examines digital culture in the areas of health, news, politics, and entertainment from a comparative perspective, with a special focus on Latin America and Latinx USA. For additional information please visit boczkowski.org.

This program is open to all eligible individuals. USC Annenberg operates all of its programs and activities consistent with the University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.