Date :

14 November 2011

Time :

10:15 – 11:45

Both the spread of HIV, and the responses to it, are consequences of globalisation. It is spread through movement of peoples and the response has created new international institutions which are part of the fragile attempts to construct new forms of global governance. 

AIDS has made the sexual possibilities of social and economic change more central to public policy, and concentrated political attention on the ‘breakdown’ of traditional cultural and social structures, whether these are the idealized nuclear family in the west or more traditional extended families in many non-western societies. Both the needs for effective public health and a respect for human rights require an insistence on the right to sexual diversity as part of a wider move towards the recognition of difference as an essential part of the human condition. 

Dennis Altman is a writer and academic who first came to attention with the publication of his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation in 1972. Since then Altman has written eleven books, exploring sexuality, politics and their inter-relationship in Australia, the United States and now globally. These include The Homosexualization of America; AIDS and the New Puritanism; Rehearsals for Change, a novel (The Comfort of Men) and memoirs (Defying Gravity). His book, Global Sex (Chicago U.P, 2001), has been translated into five languages, including Spanish, Turkish and Japanese. Most recently he published Gore Vidal’s America (Polity) and Fifty First State? [Scribe].

He was President of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (2001-5), and since 2004 has been a member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society. In 2005 he was Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard, and has been a Board member of Oxfam Australia. He was listed by The Bulletin as one of the 100 most influential Australians ever [July 4 2006], and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia June 2008.

The audio presentation from the seminar is available for download

Kindly RSVP by 11 November 2011

Venues

Cape Town: HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street, Cape Town. Contact Vuyokazi Ngxubaza, Tel +27 (0) 21 466 8004, Fax (021) 461 0299, or VNgxubaza@hsrc.ac.za Cell: +27 (0) 82 050 8453  

Durban: First floor HSRC board room, 750 Francois Road, Ntuthuko Junction, Pods 5 and 6, Cato Manor, Contact Ridhwaan Khan, Tel +27 (0) 31) 242 5400, Cell: +27 (0) 83 788 2786 or RKhan@hsrc.ac.za  

Pretoria: HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: +27 (0) 12 302 2811, e-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za