Since March of 2000, the cross-disciplinary study area of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland has organized a colloquium each spring that focuses on a topic critical to the lives of women worldwide.  This year’s program will consider the ways in which representations of gender and sexuality frame our understanding of persons with HIV/AIDS, as well as our cultural, political, and medical responses—both local and global—to the virus and syndrome over the last 30 years.

This year’s colloquium, “Going Viral:  30 Years of Living with HIV/AIDS,” will run from March 19-23 and will include presentations from SMCM Professors Samantha Elliott and Jeff Byrd on the biology of the virus; Dr. Marjorie Robert-Guroff of the National Cancer Institute, on HIV vaccine initiatives; Professor David Román on AIDS activism early in the epidemic; and Professor Shanti Parikh on AIDS and sexuality in eastern Uganda.  This year, the colloquium also includes an exhibition of the AIDS Quilt, in the Michael P. O’Brien Athletics and Recreation Center, a screening of the documentary “The Other City,” free HIV testing for the college community, and an activism workshop led by Helping Independent Prostitutes Survive (HIPS).

The Schedule (in Cole Cinema, unless otherwise noted):

8:00 p.m., Monday, March 19:  Film Screening, “The Other City”
4:15 p.m., Tuesday, March 20:  Opening Ceremony, The AIDS Memorial Quilt exhibition, Michael P. O’Brien Athletics and Recreation Center.  Exhibition to run, with daily reading of the names, through March 23, 2012
8:15 p.m., Tuesday, March 20: Professors Samantha Elliott and Jeff Byrd, “HIV/AIDS 101”
4:45 p.m., Wednesday, March 21:  Dr. Marjorie Robert-Guroff, “Development of a Vaccine for HIV/AIDS:  Challenges and Prospects”
8:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 21:  Professor Shanti Parikh, “Regulating Romance:  Youth Sexual Culture, Moral Anxiety, and Love Letters in Uganda’s Time of AIDS”
4:15 p.m., Thursday, March 22:  Professor David Román, “Images of Intervention:  AIDS Activism in the U.S. in the Early 1980s”
8:15 p.m., Thursday, March 22:  Colloquium Roundtable, Colloquium speakers and moderator, Professor Joe Lucchesi
3:00 p.m., Friday, March 23:  Helping Independent Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), Activism Workshop

Tuesday, March 20 – Thursday, March 22:  Free HIV testing for the college community, Library, 2nd floor.  Schedule appointments with the College Health Center.