Coronavirus Multispecies Reading Group - Ben Hegarty & HIV specialists panel on navigating HIV visibility in Indonesia: March 28, 2022

We are delighted to converse with McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow Benjamin Hegarty (U of Melbourne) on his latest publication concerning HIV visibility in an Indonesian context, "The Biosocial Body" (2022, Ethos). Joining him for the dialogue will be medical anthropologist and HIV specialists Ferdi Thajib (PhD candidate, Freie Universität Berlin), and Annemarie Samuels (Associate Prof, Leiden University). This exciting cross-talk panel will examine dynamics of HIV visibility in Indonesia, extending Hegarty's continued research on the vital role of peer outreach workers who aid clients in navigating access to clinics and pharmaceutical treatment amidst the chronic underfunding of accessible healthcare, and an increasing bureaucratization of HIV management. This work carefully attends to the ways in which clients must also navigate the politics of visibility, self-presentation and gender performance in order to access life-saving pharmaceuticals and biomedical knowledge or else risk being considered "lost to follow up."