PUBLIC FORUM ON AIDS AND SARS IN CHINA TO TAKE PLACE AT BARD COLLEGE ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28 The Forum Will Be Preceded, on October 27, by a Film Screening Featuring Footage Shot by Two Bard Graduates Teaching in China During the SARS Outbreak
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On Tuesday, October 28, Bard in China and the Bard Center for Environmental Policy are hosting an open forum focusing on AIDS (auto immune deficiency syndrome) and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in China. The forum, "AIDS & SARS in China: Disease, Public Health, and Politics," will feature three leading experts in the study of the biological, social, and political aspects of these two diseases, as well as commentary from Bard faculty. The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center on the Bard College campus. Refreshments will be served after the panel. The forum is being presented with support from the Freeman Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative.
The forum will feature three leading experts in the study and fight against AIDS and SARS in China: Shibo Jiang, head of the Laboratory of Viral Immunology, New York Blood Center; Yanhai Wan, director of the Beijing AIDS Institute of Health Education; and Yanzhong Huang, professor, John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. The event will be introduced and moderated by Joanne Fox-Przeworski, director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy and former director for North America of the United Nations Environment Programme, with participation by commentators Felicia Keesing, associate professor of biology, and Nara Dillon, assistant professor of political studies, both at Bard.
In a related event on Monday, October 27, there will be a screening of a film by two Bard graduates, Jacob Mitas '99 and Ting Ting Cheng '02, who were teaching in Shanghai during the SARS outbreak. Closed Curtains: An Audio Visual Exploration of the Lives of Two American English Teachers and Varying Artists During the SARS Epidemic in Shanghai, May 2003 will be screened at 8 p.m. in Weis Cinema in the Bertelsmann Campus Center.
Dr. Shibo Jiang is head of the New York Blood Center's Laboratory of Viral Immunology, where his current research focuses on, among other areas, the development of therapies and vaccines to fight human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hantaviruses, and the SARS virus. His work has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. Dr. Jiang has an M.D. and M.S. from the First Medical University of PLA, Guangzhou, China, and a Ph.D. from the Fourth Medical University of PLA, Xian, China.
Wan Yanhai is one of China's most influential HIV/AIDS activists. He is director of the Beijing AIDS Institute of Health Education and founder of the AISHI Action Project, an NGO that uses health education, research, publishing, and conferences to focus attention on the growing HIV/AIDS crisis in China. He is currently a postgraduate fellow with the World Fellowship Program at Yale University's Center for the Study of Globalization. His work has won awards from Human Rights Watch and the International League for Human Rights.
At the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Dr. Huang Yanzhong is director of the School's efforts to establish a global health studies center to examine global health issues from national security and foreign policy perspectives. His research focuses on Chinese politics, state capacities, and global health and security. In May, he appeared before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to testify about the politics of SARS in China. He is currently working on a book on the politics of public health in post-Mao China. He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago.
For more information about the forum, please call 845-758-7388 or e-mail [email protected].
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(10.2.03)