Webinar: Northwestern anthropologist Adia Benton to discuss coronavirus response in the U.S., globally

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University researcher Adia Benton will discuss topics central to the COVID-19 response in the U.S. and globally in a webinar scheduled for noon, Tuesday, March 17. 

Members of the media are invited to join “Can’t Touch This: Anthropological Reflections on the Coronavirus Pandemic.” Registration is required to join this event. Register here or contact Erin Karter at erin.karter@northwestern.edu or 312-273-0277.

Benton will touch upon the following topics:  

• What is and isn’t known about COVID-19 and its transmission dynamics
• How scientific and public health expertise is brought to bear (or not) in calibrating recommendations at various levels of governance and “responsibility”
• Alternative ways of framing our conversations about and approaches to “flattening the curve” of infection in our communities

The webinar is sponsored by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. 

Benton, associate professor of anthropology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is a cultural anthropologist with interests in global health, biomedicine, development and humanitarianism and professional sports. She is the author of “HIV Exceptionalism: Development through Disease in Sierra Leone” (University of Minnesota, 2015). 

Benton’s other recent publications have focused on visual analyses of humanitarian images, race and humanitarian professionals, security and military paradigms during epidemics, and temporality in an era of anti-retroviral therapies for HIV/AIDS.