Nicholas Derda
Nicholas Derda is an independent scholar whose research and public work center on health humanities, LGBTQ+ studies, and visual culture. He recently completed a PhD in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, where his dissertation, "Visualizing Queer Care: Comics and Counterpublic Health in the Age of AIDS," examined how comics and graphic narratives contributed to community-based responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis and reshaped understandings of queer care.
In addition to his academic work, Derda has professional experience in public health, nonprofit leadership, and government service. His interests bridge scholarship and practice, with a focus on how the humanities can inform public health, social justice, and community advocacy.
He is currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In addition to his academic work, Derda has professional experience in public health, nonprofit leadership, and government service. His interests bridge scholarship and practice, with a focus on how the humanities can inform public health, social justice, and community advocacy.
He is currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
less
InterestsView All (6)
Uploads
Papers by Nicholas Derda
HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns in the United States and globally. From an anthropomorphic bottle of bleach named Bleachman to a team of HIV-positive mutants called the Undetectables, community-based organizations have used the superhero as a messenger for safer sex and harm reduction practices. Using recent theorizations of “popular fantasy” from queer comics studies, this article frames the HIV/AIDS superhero as a “political resource” for queer communities that offered a readymade visual, verbal, and narrative vocabulary that enabled queer people to imagine a future during a deadly epidemic. As a tool of public health communication, the flexible icon of the superhero helped AIDS workers eroticize safer sex, imagine new queer kinship structures and activist coalitions, and encourage vulnerable communities to embrace biomedical advancements. Using archival ephemera, the article offers a visual analysis of the HIV/AIDS superhero as the figure has morphed over the last four decades in media such as comics, posters, videos, and digital campaigns. Situated at the nexus of queer studies, science and technology studies, and comics studies, the article illustrates how
the superhero can continue to be leveraged as a messenger of hope and optimism at a moment in which many HIV/AIDS advocates have grown complacent about the supposed intractability of the epidemic.
Book Reviews by Nicholas Derda