Thursday, January 10, 2019, 12 – 1:15 pm
Parnassus Library, 5th Floor, Lange Room
Expanding on one thread from his recent book, Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), Richard A. McKay, D.Phil. will present findings from his archival research across North America to illuminate historical aspects of sexual health and sexually transmitted infections among men who had sex with men. The talk will focus on California in the 1950s and 1960s, with a particular emphasis on developments in homophile activism—the forerunner of later gay rights organizing—and public health. Dr. McKay will also reflect on the methodological challenges of carrying out research on a topic for which patient records and other source materials were routinely destroyed to preserve confidentiality.
Dr. Richard A. McKay, Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge
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