Date Thesis Awarded
4-2022
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
History
Advisor
Jerry Watkins
Committee Members
Charles McGovern
Allison Scott
Abstract
When AIDS struck the United States it appeared to primarily affect gay men. This thesis explores the history of education, first through Hollywood films and documentaries, then posters, and finally direct sex education by health professionals. The first chapter explores motion pictures while the second Chapter shifts to sex education. It opens with a discussion of corruption in the blood industry whbut I dich endangered hemophiliacs who relied on the blood industry. Ryan White and the Ray Brothers illustrate the power of public education to radically transform the ways a community treats HIV+ children and what happens when this education is not followed. The chapter then moves from K-12 education to colleges and universities. Poster campaigns at William & Mary and other universities are followed by an interview with Todd Rademaker, the current director program supervisor of HIV/STD in Cincinnati, to illustrate some of the ways that education has changed over the last 40 years of the AIDS crisis.
Recommended Citation
Murphy, Jillian, "And the Band played On...But Should It?: Educational media and the AIDS crisis" (2022). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1877.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1877
