Ludmila Janion
Ludmila Janion, assistant professor and international mobility coordinator at the University of Warsaw’s American Studies Center will offer an “HIV/AIDS in Media” workshop at Daemen from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 28 in the college’s Research and Information Commons.
Students can join Janion – a cultural studies scholar whose interests include media, gender, and sexuality studies – for this in-person event, which will also feature a complimentary lunch. Students can also attend via Zoom.
Janion will help students analyze HIV-prevention campaigns released by the Polish Ministry of Health in the 2000s to reconstruct gender and sexuality politics of the successive Polish governments.
“Not only does Dr. Janion’s research help us see this moment in time from another perspective – that of the Polish government – but also consider how similar or different the actions of our U.S. administration were,” said Bee Taylor, coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion at Daemen, who helped organize the event.
The goal of the workshop is to educate students on the global effects of the HIV/AIDS crisis, Taylor explained, and how they can use media literacy to understand the lasting impact on today’s treatment of marginalized and vulnerable populations.
Kurt Blankschaen, assistant professor in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at Daemen – which also helped organize the event – said, “Students should know how media reports and news stories shape the way patients, doctors, and politicians think about illness. Learning how cultural narratives influence decisions about medical care and research prospects matters because it shows why healthcare is both a medical and political conversation.”
The event is also being staged in partnership with the History and Political Science Department, Center for Polish Studies, Medical Humanities Minor Program, and the Kosciuszko Foundation.
The event also aims to engage students in critical conversations around varying responses by administrations/governments on HIV/AIDS.