Religion, Sexuality and AIDS: All the News That's Fit to Print?: Diane Winston @ NYU

The Lerner Workshop in Religion and Society at NYU, Inaugural Lecture by Diane Winston
Thursday, April 26
6 to 7:30 pm
Diane Winston, Knight Chair, Media and Religion, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California
Winston examines three newspapers, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Morning News, to consider the impact of AIDS coverage especially on reporting about religion and sexuality. What began in 1981 as a brief about an unusual cancer occurring among homosexual men, soon became more than a medical story as AIDS exposed social and cultural fault lines in the nation. Its initial outbreak in the homosexual community also made it a story about sexuality and religion since, in 1981, the majority of American Christians believed that the Bible forbade homosexuality. By 1983, an emergent medical/moral frame for the disease made religion an integral part of the story in three dominant tropes: AIDS as a punishment for immorality, as a pastoral challenge for denominations, and as a spiritual trial for the afflicted.
Jurow Hall
31 Washington Place, 1st Floor
For further information contact religious.studies(at)nyu.edu.
This event is free and open to the public.  Venue is wheelchair accessible.
Sponsored by Religious Studies, co-sponsored by Center for Religion and Media; Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality Studies; and the Dean of the College of Arts and Science.


Share