NEMLA 2002 Convention
12-13 April 2002
Toronto, Canada
Session Title: Women and AIDS
Gender, in what Katie Hogan and Nancy L. Roth call a Gendered Epidemic is
not coincidental. They comment in the introduction to their anthology "An
explosion of what theorist Cindy Patton calls a ‘new visibility of woman' in
discussions of HIV infection has occurred in the last five years." Despite
this new visibility, however, Hogan and Roth continue, "But this new
visibility of ‘woman,' no matter how crucial, hard won, and necessary cannot
explain the deeply entrenched historical silences and gendered distortions
that characterized the first decade of the HIV pandemic, and that often
continue to structure HIV/AIDS prevention efforts targeted toward women and
representations of women and HIV/AIDS."
This panel seeks to address central questions about the textual
representations of women and AIDS. How are women portrayed in AIDS texts?
What role(s) do women play in the canonical AIDS texts? How have women
authors, poets, and film makers addressed the historical omission of women
within the larger AIDS narrative? How have their assertions changed AIDS?
This panel is interested in papers which examine memoirs, fiction, poetry,
film, song, and other textual representations of women and AIDS—from
caregivers to women living with HIV and AIDS—as an integral part of the
story of AIDS.
As one concrete example of this, Amber Hollibaugh critiques AIDS activists
movements in My Dangerous Desires, A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home.
Hollibaugh observes that the AIDS activist movement often perpetuated the
idea that lesbians were immune from HIV. Holligbaugh asserts that this
"simple picture" could only be maintained "by leaving a whole lot of women
out: lesbians who work in the sex industry, others who sometimes had sex
with men or used intravenous drugs. A whole lot of women on the edge."
Please submit 350 word abstracts to Dr. J. Elizabeth Clark by 15 September
2001. E-mailed submissions are preferred and should be sent to
clarkjec@hotmail.com. Hard copies may be mailed to Dr. J. Elizabeth Clark,
Department of English, Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College—CUNY, 31-10
Thomson Ave. E-103, Long Island City, NY 11101
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J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D. //
Assistant Professor of English //
Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College//
Department of English/E-103 //
31-10 Thomson Ave. //
Long Island City, NY 11101 //
clarkjec@hotmail.com //
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