Wednesday, April 27 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm

Joseph Osmundson

VIROLOGY: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between

Invisible in the food we eat, the people we kiss, and inside our own bodies, viruses flourish--with the power to shape not only our health, but our social, political, and economic systems. In his new book, VIROLOGY, Joseph Osmundson brings readers under the microscope to understand the structure and mechanics of viruses and to examine how viruses like HIV and COVID-19 have redefined daily life.

SCHEDULE

4:00pm

- Welcome & introduction, Dean David Vanden Bout

- Reading and book discussion, Joseph Osmundson

4:40pm

- Panel discussion – Joseph Osmundson, Stephen Russell and Julie Zuniga, moderated by Josh Roebke

5:05pm

- Audience Q&A (remote attendees – please use the form fields on this page to submit questions)

5:25pm

- Closing remarks, Dean David Vanden Bout

ABOUT OUR MODERATOR AND PANELIST

Virginia Brown, Assistant Professor, Dell Medical School, Department of Population Health

Virginia Brown is a clinical ethicist and medical sociologist who earned degrees in Philosophy and Sociology at Howard University, concentrating on issues of race, class, gender and health. Her research is on the structural determinants of health -- the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age -- and their influence on health and health care outcomes.

Joshua Roebke, Founder and Creator of New Equations

Joshua Roebke is an author, instructor, and historian of science, who is currently writing his first book, The Invisible World, a social and cultural history of particle physics in the 20th century. He studied Spanish literature and nuclear physics at Michigan State University and received a master’s degree in theoretical high-energy physics from McGill University in Montréal. He was an editor and a writer at an award-winning science magazine in New York for several years, and one of his feature articles appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. For several years, Joshua was a visiting scholar in the Office for History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Institute for Historical Studies at The University of Texas.

Stephen Russel, Department Chair, Human Development and Family Sciences

Stephen Russell (he/him) is Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor in Child Development, chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, and Amy Johnson McLaughlin Director of the School of Human Ecology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an expert in adolescent and young adult health, with a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity. His 2016 book, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Schooling: The Nexus of Research, Practice and Policy, won awards from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research on Adolescence. He has served on the governing boards of the Society for Research in Child Development, National Council on Family Relations (and is an elected fellow), SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, and is former President of the Society for Research on Adolescence (2012-2014).

Julie Zuniga, Associate Professor, School of Nursing

Dr. Julie Zuniga is an associate professor in the School of Nursing and a registered nurse. Her research interest includes self-management of stigmatized illnesses in conjunction with co-morbid conditions, focusing on HIV and diabetes. Dr. Zuniga received her doctorate in nursing at The University of Texas at Austin and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

About New Equations

In New Equations, the College of Natural Sciences hosts renowned authors and thought leaders for in-depth conversations at the intersection of science and identity. CNS is committed to promoting the underappreciated stories of science, to providing context to our disciplines, to fostering a community in which all of our members feel safe, supported, and seen—the essence of belonging. Save the date for Robin Wall Kimmerer on October 25, 2022.