Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 8-22, 1999

Volume 27, Number 24

Campus conferences will examine
issues related to AIDS

Two AIDS-related conferences -- one examining recent attempts to use legislation to regulate the sexual behavior of people with HIV and one looking at current Yale research on the disease -- will take place on campus in early April.

Early registration is required for both conferences, which are being presented under the auspices of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA). Established in 1997 through a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, CIRA is charged with conducting research aimed toward the prevention of HIV infection and the reduction of the negative consequences of HIV disease in vulnerable and underserved populations. The center is also mandated to examine AIDS-related laws, policies and ethics.

Registration forms for both conferences are available on the CIRA web site at info.med.yale.edu/eph/cira/. Forms may also be obtained by contacting the CIRA office at 764-4333 or cira@biomed.med.yale.edu.

AIDS and criminalizing sex

"Using Law To Regulate Behavior: AIDS and the Criminalization of SEX" will take place 2-8 p.m. on Thursday, April 8, at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St. There is no admission fee; however, pre-registration is required by Monday, March 29.

The event is sponsored by CIRA's Law, Policy and Ethics Core, which includes legal experts and bioethicists from several Yale departments, including law, medicine, public health, management and biology.

"Using Law To Regulate Behavior" will focus on recent efforts to prevent and control transmission of HIV by making it a crime for those who are HIV-positive to engage in sex without informing their partners. Internationally renowned scholars and activists will discuss such topics as attempts to regulate sexual behavior throughout history; different legal approaches for criminalizing sexual behavior; ethical questions raised by these approaches; social and psychological dimensions of sex; the influence of law on individual behavior; and non-punitive mechanisms for regulating sexual and other health behaviors.

The conference will include panel sessions, a working dinner and talk, and a post-dinner discussion.

AIDS research at Yale

AIDS Science Day '99, a one-day interdisciplinary program highlighting the work of AIDS researchers at Yale, will be presented 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 9, in the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Public Health, 60 College St. Again, there is no admission fee, but pre-registration is required by Monday, March 22. The event is cosponsored by CIRA and the Yale AIDS Program.

The conference will examine how AIDS research is continually changing as epidemiological patterns of the disease shift, new technologies for diagnosis and treatment are created, new interventions are developed, and knowledge regarding parameters of prevention and treatment evolves. It will also provide a forum for scientists to discuss their responses to this changing research environment.

Highlighting AIDS Science Day '99 will be a keynote address by Dr. Neal Nathanson, director of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health. Other activities will include panel discussions, a poster session, exhibitions, a continental breakfast and an afternoon reception.

In a special student competition, abstracts submitted by Yale graduate students will be reviewed by the AIDS Science Day '99 committee, and the author of the best abstract will be given the opportunity to present his or her research at one of the panel sessions.

For further information about either conference, contact Barbara Ruth, 764-4333 or barbara.ruth@yale.edu.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

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U.S. Surgeon General to speak at Medical Library
Yale rower breaks world record (for the fifth time)
A Conversation With a Master of the Web
'From Bojangles to Broadway' exhibit celebrates black musical entertainers
Director will bring his 'unique insights' to 'The Glass Menagerie'
Campus conferences will examine issues related to AIDS
Yale's 'winningest' women's basketball coach stepping down
Yale is first site in state to offer new test for cervical cancer risk
Barbara J. Bachmann, microbiologist and longtime Yale affiliate, died Jan. 31
Campus Notes