 The Human in HIV: USF Conference Focuses on Social Justice, AIDS
Faculty, staff, artists, and community activists gathered at the University of San Francisco in December to talk about how HIV/AIDS can be better understood by educators and how the disease can be used to teach social justice in all disciplines, from fine arts to science to English.
The conference, The Human in HIV: AIDS Across the Curriculum, was the first of its kind at USF.
“The goal of the conference was to reinforce the idea that HIV/AIDS is multidisciplinary,” said Raymond Quirolgico, associate director of residence life who organized the conference. “One goal is to understand that HIV/AIDS is not just a subject for biology, nursing, or other traditional sciences. It relates to issues of gender identity, religion, politics, global economics, and immigration law. It involves everything about being a human. So it was important to involve all members of the university community in planning and presenting this conference. I’m grateful that so many people wanted to get involved.”
The conference was funded by a $5,000 grant from the Association of American Colleges and Universities and a matching grant from The James Irvine Foundation. Attendees were primarily from USF, but also included faculty from Samuel Merritt College, UC Berkeley, and Saint Mary’s College. More than a dozen academic departments, administrative offices, and university divisions—from Residence Life to the provost’s office to Expository Writing—contributed to the conference in some way.
“This conference focused on the social justice issues of HIV/AIDS because it directly relates to the mission of the university and it takes into consideration our location in San Francisco, with the historical connection between HIV/AIDS and the population of The City,” Quirolgico said.
During a session titled “AIDS, Art, and Activism,” Assistant Professor of Fine and Performing Arts Richard Kamler, along with San Francisco artist and activist Nance Lemoins, discussed how art can be used to educate about HIV/AIDS. Lemoins shared artwork created by people with HIV/AIDS, including herself. Many of the paintings and drawings were candid self-portraits, offering a glimpse into feelings of pain, anger, fear, and uncertainty that are a part of the daily lives of the artists.
“Everybody, on some level, looks at it and says, ‘That could be me,’” Lemoins said. “That’s the hope.”
For Susan Prion, assistant to the provost who also teaches in the School of Nursing, the session offered ideas on how to address a challenge faced by educators—how to make the disease “real” for people who have not experienced it.
“Part of it is allowing stories to be told in the person’s own words,” she said. “This art, which is really someone’s own voice explaining their state of mind, would be more effective, much more powerful than talking about it secondhand.”
Other sessions focused on the response of religion to HIV/AIDS, how the stigma of the disease impacts curricula, and how to incorporate HIV/AIDS issues into liberal arts curricula. The day concluded with a dinner and keynote address by Richard Keeling, chairman of a New York City health consulting firm and editor of the Journal of American College Health.
USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., who spoke at the lunch, said the multidisciplinary study of HIV/AIDS is essential.
“If one looks at the world through the HIV/AIDS lens, it is quite revealing,” he said. “One sees that the pandemic is at its most virulent in underdeveloped countries; that women, children, and the unborn are heavily affected; that the poor are disproportionately represented among those who suffer from HIV/AIDS; that the medical resources for dealing with HIV/AIDS are not equitably distributed on the basis of need.
“The study of HIV/AIDS raises a whole set of complicated questions that defy easy answers. It is a global issue crying for a humane and just resolution; as such it has a role to play in a contemporary Jesuit Catholic education.”
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