Steven Thrasher’s “The Viral Underclass” Community Event

Emory is excited to host a conversation with Dr. Steven W. Thrasher, author of the new book The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll when Inequality and Disease Collide. This community event is part of Emory University’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence’s university course entitled “Pandemic Reflections” led by Dr. Jodie Guest. “Pandemic Reflections” focuses on HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 as two ongoing pandemics that have taught us about science and disease while bringing into sharper focus issues surrounding stigma, religion, communication, inequity, and politics (to name a few).

Dr. Thrasher will join Dr. Guest to discuss The Viral Underclass, a book that helps put a face to the millions of people affected by viruses like HIV and COVID-19, with special focus on how race, class, gender, and sexuality combine to help some survive pandemics while others disproportionately experience devastating effects.

Steven Thrasher, PhD, holds the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair at Northwestern University’s Medill School, the first journalism professorship focusing on LGBTQ+ research, and is faculty at Northwestern’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. His writing has been 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, Out 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. The Viral Underclass is his first book. Twitter: @thrasherxy.