Steven W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
Daniel H. Renberg chair at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism
Alida Bouris, Ph.D., MSW
Associate Professor in the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide
BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of The Viral Underclass from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Dr. Thrasher and Dr. Bouris that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.
In his first book The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide, preeminent LGBTQIA+ scholar, social critic, and journalist Steven W. Thrasher, Ph.D. offers a powerful and crucial exploration of one of the most pressing issues of our times: how viruses expose the fault lines of society.
Having spent a ground-breaking career studying the racialization, policing, and criminalization of HIV, Dr. Thrasher has come to understand a deeper truth at the heart of our society: that there are vast inequalities in who is able to survive viruses and that the ways in which viruses spread, kill, and take their toll are much more dependent on social structures than they are on biology alone. Told through the heart-rending stories of friends, activists, and teachers navigating the novel coronavirus, HIV, and other viruses, Dr. Thrasher brings the reader with him as he delves into the viral underclass and lays bare its inner workings.
Dr. Thrasher holds the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg chair at Northwestern University’s Medill School, the first journalism professorship in the world created to focus on LGBTQIA+ research. He is also a faculty member of Northwestern’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. His writing has been widely published by Scientific American, The New York Times, Nation, The Atlantic, The Journal of American History, BuzzFeed News, Esquire, and New York magazine. In 2019, . magazine named him one of the 100 most influential and impactful people of the year and in 2020, the Ford Foundation awarded him a grant for Creativity and Free Expression.
Dr. Thrasher will be in conversation with Alida Bouris, associate professor in the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Dr. Bouris’ research focuses on the relationship between social context and adolescent health, with a particular emphasis on understanding how parents and families can help prevent HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and unplanned pregnancies among marginalized youth aged 10-24 years old.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.
Event Sponsors
- Baker Demonstration School
- Beacon Academy
- Catherine Cook School
- Compass Health Center
- Connections for the Homeless
- Countryside Day School
- Evanston Township High School D202
- Francis W. Parker School
- Gorton Center
- Haven Youth and Family Services
- Hyde Park Day School
- Lake Forest Academy
- Lake Forest Country Day School
- Near North Montessori School
- New Trier High School D203
- New Trier Parents’ Association
- North Shore Country Day
- Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy
- Rebel Human
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Roycemore School
- Santa Clara University School of Law
- Science & Arts Academy
- Stevenson High School D125
- The Family Institute at Northwestern University
- The Frances Xavier Warde School
- University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
- Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District
- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
- Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)
Upcoming Events
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Alan Lightman, Ph.D.
Professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT and author of seven novels
Dacher Keltner, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Faculty Director of the Greater Good Science Center, and bestselling author
ON ZOOM
The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions
Michael Norton, Ph.D.
Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Sam Sommers, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Racial Equity and Diversity Lab at Tufts University
ON ZOOM
