The HIV/AIDS pandemic that began in the latter part of the twentieth-century set the stage for many of the current COVID-19 social policy dynamics and general public expectations. In thinking through the oft cited ‘Age of COVID-19’, it is important to continue re-thinking the AIDS pandemic and what it teaches us today.

How might public policy agendas reconcile with the grief and rage of families watching loved ones die due to coronavirus complications? And how does the fact that the AIDS pandemic is still happening impact what the future of COVID-19 might become?

Speaker biography

Dr John Troyer is the Director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. He is a co-founder of the Death Reference Desk website, the Future Cemetery Project and a frequent commentator for the BBC. His new book Technologies of the Human Corpse was published by The MIT Press in May 2020. He grew up in the American funeral industry.

This event will be chaired by Sarah Griffiths, PhD Candidate in the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath.