Embodied place in disembodied space: The emotional geography of online classrooms

While many institutions in recent years have worked to adapt classes to online settings, little attention has been given to the interplay of affect and emotion in online classrooms. This study uses a microethnographic approach to observe two online multicultural education courses over a 7-week term to explore the normative and socially organized practices of affect and emotion. We emphasize the ways that affect and emotion are deeply connected to physical place and online space. Findings suggest the emotional geography of online, synchronous classrooms are characterized by the duality of space and place. This includes tensions around visualizing affect and understanding emotion without shared references and physical places. This research also suggests that teachers and students are managing complex relationships, roles, and pressures in real time as their physical place may call for individuals to act one way while the online space may call for a different set of emotion work and labor. •Online emotional geographies are characterized by the duality of space and place.•Participants in online classrooms struggle to make sense of emotional interactions. This is due to the separation of physical place between persons and the inability to see the reaction of bodies in online classrooms.•Teachers and students are managing complex relationships, roles, and pressures in real time that impact their ability to engage in online classrooms.