Paula Treichler, Dale Brashers, & Marie Leger Panel Presentation on HIV/AIDS Policy (4/23/04)

As part of the ICR's project on Communications, Culture, and Policy, funded by the Ford Foundation, our April 23 panel presentation was entitled, "Policy Perspectives on HIV/AIDS 2004." The distinguished speakers were Paula Treichler (Research Professor of Communications and former Director of the ICR), Dale Brashers (Associate Professor of Speech Communication), and Marie Leger (MD/PhD Candidate in the ICR).

ABSTRACT: The arrival in the U.S. of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s had lasting effects on public policy related to the epidemic. Because this particular epidemic featured the highly charged parameters of sexual transmission, homosexual communities, illegal drug use, and fears of contagion, the conservative Reagan administration was slow to respond to, intervene in, or even acknowledge the epidemic. Taking its cue from the federal government, the public health establishment and general media were also slow to respond. The policy vacuum at the top during the early, formative years of the epidemic had tragic consequences for people with AIDS and at risk for HIV. At the same time, it created unique opportunities for new voices and grassroots political interests to participate in debating and developing HIV/AIDS policy. Panel members explore the outcomes for policy that persist today in several distinct domains. These include the emergence of a critical critique of HIV/AIDS definitions, lexical items ("risk group," etc), and representations; the proliferation of condom distribution and clean needle campaigns at the grassroots level; and the pioneering of generic drug treatments for developing countries.

BACKGROUND READINGS: (1) Brashers, Dale, et al. (2000, July). Collective AIDS Activism and Individuals' Perceived Self-Advocacy in Physician-Patient Communication. Human Communication Researach, 26(3), pp. 372-402.
(2) Brodie, Mollyann, et al. (2004, March/April). AIDS at 21: Media Coverage of the HIV Epidemic 1981-2002. Columbia Journalism Review, pp. 1-8 (supplement).

Paula Treichler is Research Professor of Communications and the former Director of the Institute of Communications Research at UIUC. Her primary areas of interest are: Cultural studies of science and medicine; feminist theory and gender studies; analysis of language and discourse; HIV/AIDS; history and future of condoms. With a background in philosophy and linguistics, specializing in psycholinguistics (PhD: University of Rochester), Professor Treichler has served since 1972 as a teacher and administrator at the University of Illinois' experimental Unit One program, as dean of students in the College of Medicine, and as Director of the Institute of Communications Research. She holds faculty appointments in the College of Medicine, ICR, Women's Studies, and the Campus Honors Program. The courses she has recently taught include Feminist Cultural Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Cultural Studies in Science and Medicine, the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Medicine and Society, Human Sexuality, and AIDS and Culture. Dr. Treichler is author of How to Have Theory in an Epidemic: Cultural Chronicles of AIDS and coauthor of A Feminist Dictionary and Language, Gender, and Professional Writing: Theoretical Essays and Guidelines for Nonsexist Usage. She is coeditor of For Alma Mater: Theory and Practice in Feminist Scholarship, The Visible Woman: Imaging Technologies, Science, and Gender and Cultural Studies. She has published essays on feminist theory, language and gender, language and medicine, HIV/AIDS, and language and American women's writing. She is currently working on a book on the history of condoms in the U.S. since 1873.

Dale E. Brashers is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Study in the Department of Speech Communication at UIUC (PhD: University of Arizona). His research interests are: Health communication; effects of HIV illness on communication; uncertainty management; argumentation; research methods. Professor Brashers is currently investigating the role of communication in the management of health and illness for persons living with HIV or AIDS. One project funded by a grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research, (part of the National Institutes of Health) involves describing the nature of uncertainty and the mechanisms of uncertainty management for this population. This study will lead to the development and testing of an uncertainty management intervention in which individuals who are newly-diagnosed with HIV will learn communication skills (e.g., self-disclosure, physician-patient communication, information search) from a peer educator. A related research project focuses on the development of self-advocacy skills for HIV-infected individuals. Dr. Brashers has authored "Communication and uncertainty management" (Journal of Communication, 51, 2001) and has co-authored several articles: "Information seeking and avoiding in health contexts" (Human Communication Research, 28, 2002); "Social activism, self-advocacy, and coping with HIV illness" (Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19, 2002); "Collective AIDS activism and individual's perceived self-advocacy in physician-patient communication" (Human Communication Research, 26, 2001); "Communication in the management of uncertainty: The case of persons living with HIV or AIDS" (Communication Monographs, 67, 2000) He has also co-authored: "Transitions and challenges: Revival and uncertainty for persons living with HIV and AIDS." In S.G. Funk et al. (Eds.), Key Aspects of Preventing and Managing Chronic Illness (pp.141-160). New York: Springer (2001). For further information see: www.uiuc.edu/~dbrasher and www.spcomm.uiuc.edu/healthcomm/

Marie Leger is an MD/PhD Candidate in the Institute of Communications Research. Her dissertation research examines globalization and pharmaceutical clinical trials through a case study of HIV/AIDS research in Mexico City. Marie spent the 1998-1999 academic year as an exchange student in the Sociology department at the Colegio de Mexico, supported by a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. Her research has also been supported by the International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships, and the University of Illinois Graduate College travel grant. She has presented her work at annual meetings of the Latin American Studies Association, the International Communication Association, the Society for the Social Studies of Science, and the American Sociological Association, and has published articles in the Journal of Medical Humanities, Emergences, and Television Studies (British Film Institute, 2002). Her research interests include globalization and health, social and cultural studies of science and technology, and health and the media. Marie has a B.A. (1995) in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California at Berkeley.