May 25, 2022, marks the 40th anniversary of the diagnosis of South Carolina’s first AIDS patient. To commemorate this historic event, the MUSC Waring Historical Library is hosting a hybrid symposium focusing on the history of HIV/AIDS in South Carolina and the South. Scheduled for May 24-26, 2022, the event will feature historians and scholars discussing the history of the disease, healthcare and public health professionals from the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina who were on the frontlines of the epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, up through the present, and representatives from state and local HIV/AIDS support groups.

Symposium planners intend for the event to be a thoughtful and respectful reflection on the history of HIV/ AIDS in the state and the South, and we hope you will join us. Please mark your calendars for May 24-26, 2022. More information will be available as we get closer to May.

Dates

Tuesday - Thursday, May 24-26, 2022

Location

Circular Congregational Church, Charleston, SC & Virtual

Confirmed Speakers

• Valerie Assey, RN, MSN, Ryan White Program Nurse Manager, MUSC Infectious Diseases Division.
• Robert Ball, MD, MPH, FACP, the Charleston physician who diagnosed the state’s first AIDS patient.
• Charles Bryan, MD, MACP, FRCP, former director of the University of South Carolina’s Division of Infectious Diseases during the first decade of the AIDS crisis.
• Brian Fors, PhD, CA, DAS, historian and curator of the MUSC Waring Historical Library.
• Harlan Greene, author, historian, and founder of the SC LGBTQ Oral Histories, Archives, and Outreach program at the College of Charleston.
• Victoria Harden, PhD, historian, retired director of the Office of NIH History, and author of AIDS at 40: A History.
• Stephen Inrig, PhD, MSCS, historian and author of North Carolina and the Problem of AIDS: Advocacy, Politics, & Race in the South and The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response.
• Richard A. McKay, FRHistS, DPhil, historian and author of Patient Zero and Making of the AIDS Epidemic.
• Eric Meisssner, MD, PhD, Director for HIV and Hepatitis Services and Research, MUSC Division of Infectious Diseases.
• Andrew Skerritt, MFA, MLA, author of Ashamed to Die: Silence, Denial and the AIDS Epidemic in the South.

Preliminary Schedule

View the symposium's preliminary schedule for more details. It will be updated closer to the event.

Registration

Registration will be limited to 150 people in-person and 300 virtually. To learn more about the symposium events and register, visit the "We Are All Affected: 40 years of HIV/AIDS in South Carolina" registration page on Eventbrite.