Newsletter Volume 7 Issue 23 - July 21, 2021 |
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The Emeritus College office will be closed August 9-17 to allow Dianne time for a much-deserved vacation. If you need to contact someone during this time, please email me at ann.e.rogers@emory.edu.
Our final Lunch Colloquium this summer will feature Bin Xu, from the Department of Sociology, who will discuss the experiences and memories of Chinese youth who were sent to rural villages during the 1960s and 1970s. Susan Allen and Eric Hunter’s earlier presentation on HIV work in Africa is summarized later in the newsletter. I thank Jim Keller for providing this summary, the last such summary of a Colloquium presentation we are going to offer in these EUEC newsletters. With recordings of our presentations almost always available on our website soon after their delivery, the Mind Matters Committe that schedules speakers and that has been recruiting volunteers to do these summaries has decided provision of a "print" version of each presentation is not really necessary. Those who have missed a presentation -- or wish to revisit one -- can easily do so online.
I wish to thank the members of our new Zoom Team (Ron Gould, Marilynne McKay, and Vernon Robbins) for their assistance with the Lunch Colloquiums this month. Their assistance with Zoom technology provides backup for Dianne Becht and will free her up for other tasks when we switch to hybrid sessions this fall.
Finally, I wish to thank Gretchen Schulz and Ann Hartle for their assistance with editing and proofing this newsletter.
--Ann
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PLEASE NOTE:
Emeritus College Office Vacation Time
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Next Newsletter - August 25
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Return to Campus Information
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Parking Permit Renewals
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Lunch Colloquium - Monday, July 26
Bin Xu
"Chairman Mao’s Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China”
Please scroll to read more below
Report - Lunch Colloquium- Monday, July 6
Susan Allen and Eric Hunter
"A 35-Year History of HIV Research in Africa: Epidemiology, Transmission, Co-Factors, and Vaccine Development"
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Faculty Activities
Katherine Mitchell
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Walking the Campus with Dianne
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Emeritus College Vacation Time |
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The Emeritus Office will be closed August 9-17, 2021.
Any emails/phone messages for Dianne during this time will be answered beginning August 18, 2021. If you need to contact someone before the 18th, please email Ann at ann.e.rogers@emory.edu.
We apologize if this creates an inconvenience to anyone, but the time away is necessary for some much-needed relaxation and a chance to refresh and be ready to tackle the new semester.
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Next Newsletter - August 25, 2021 |
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As a result of vacation and preparation time necessary for the Fall Semester, the newsletter will be distributed only once during the month of August.
The next issue will be distributed on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, and will include, as always, information on our upcoming Lunch Colloquiums as well as other news for our emeritus members.
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Return to Campus Information |
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As of this writing, Emory faculty, staff, and students are expected to return to campus for the Fall semester. There are, however, still some questions for visitors on campus. A few of our members have had difficulties using the fitness facilities on campus, but we've since been told facilities should be open to everyone by August 9, if not sooner.
Here are some links that contain information you may find helpful:
Covid Vaccine Information links:
Parking Permit Renewals
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Lunch Colloquium - Monday July 26, 2021 |
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“Chairman Mao’s Children: Generation and the
Politics of Memory in China”
Bin Xu
Associate Professor of Sociology,
2020 Recipient of the Chronos Fellowship
Lunch Colloquium - Zoom Meeting
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Dr. Bin Xu will present on the subject of his forthcoming book, Chairman Mao’s Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China (Cambridge University Press, 2021). In the 1960s and 1970s, around 17 million Chinese youths were mobilized or forced by the state to migrate to rural villages and China's frontiers. Bin Xu tells the story of how this “sent-down” generation of “educated youth” have come to terms with their difficult past. Exploring representations of memory including personal life stories, literature, museum exhibits, and acts of commemoration, he argues that these representations are defined by a struggle to reconcile a sense of worthiness with the political upheavals of the Mao years. These memories, however, are used by the state to construct an official narrative that weaves this generation's experiences into an upbeat story of the “China dream.” This marginalizes those still suffering and obscures voices of self-reflection on their moral-political responsibility for their actions. In the book, as in his talk about the book today, Dr. Xu is providing careful analysis of this generation of “Chairman Mao's children,” caught between the political and the personal, past and present, nostalgia and regret, and pride and trauma.
About Bin Xu:
In his own words:
I am Bin Xu, Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Emory University. My research interests are at the intersection of social theory, cultural sociology, and political sociology. I am particularly interested in civil society, collective memory, disaster research, and symbolic politics.
My first book, The Politics of Compassion: The Sichuan Earthquake and Civic Engagement in China (Stanford University Press, 2017) examines the huge wave of volunteering in the wake of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China and how the volunteering is intertwined with the political relations between the state and the civil society. The book combines cultural sociology with extensive data from interviews, observations, and textual materials to examine how civically engaged citizens acted on the ground, how they understood the meaning of their action, and how the political context shaped both their actions and the meaning they attributed to them.
I have finished my second book, Chairman Mao’s Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press; now in production). The book is about the collective memory of China’s “educated youth” (zhiqing) generation—the 17 million Chinese youth sent down to the countryside in the 1960s and 1970s. I draw on the data collected from 2007-2018, including life history interviews, ethnography, and archival research, to address how members of this important generation interpret meanings of their past difficulties and sufferings in the countryside, how those interpretations are represented and expressed in autobiographic memories, cultural objects, and commemorative activities, and what their memories tell us about this generation’s mentality.
I currently am working on my third book, provisionally titled The Culture of Democracy: A Sociological Approach to Civil Society (under contract with Polity Press, in its acclaimed Cultural Sociology series). The book will provide a theoretical introduction to and discussion of the cultural sociology of civil society and takes a global perspective to discuss some pressing issues such as civility, authoritarianism, and populism. The book will serve as a theoretical foundation for my research agenda in the next ten years. It will be finished in 2021.
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Report - Lunch Colloquium - Monday July 6, 2021 |
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“A 35-Year History of HIV Research in Africa: Epidemiology, Transmission, Co-Factors, and Vaccine Development”
Susan Allen
Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Eric Hunter
Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
In 1981 the disease we now know as the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was first identified in the US. It was initially believed to be restricted to gay men, transmitted among them by sexual contact, but understanding eventually expanded. It became clear that anyone could be infected and that the means of infection could include blood transfusions and injection of drugs and mother-to-child transmission through breast milk. The cause of the disease was discovered in 1983—an RNA virus termed “human immunodeficiency virus” (HIV)— and shortly thereafter diagnostic tests for the virus and antibodies to it were developed, followed later by the development of antiviral retroviral drugs (ART).
Nowadays rapid testing can be performed in 10 minutes and, if positive, be followed by confirmatory tests. To be diagnosed with AIDS, a person must have a CD4 count less than 200 cells/mm or an AIDS-defining condition (AIDS-defining conditions include over 25 different types of diseases: certain types of infections, some lymphomas, etc.). But diagnosis is no longer the death-sentence it once so often was. Over the years ART drugs have become more and more effective, related deaths have dramatically decreased, and affected individuals can lead near-normal lives for a near-normal life span by keeping the HIV RNA levels below 200 copies/ml and virtually stopping transmission to others. Emory has played a role in some of this history, most notably in the development of some of the newer antiviral drugs.
On July 6 the members of the Emeritus College were treated to a presentation by two Emory faculty members who have made significant contributions to researching and treating HIV: Drs. Susan Allen and Eric Hunter (who are, we might note, husband and wife) are both in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. The title of their talk was “A 35-year history of HIV Research in Africa: Epidemiology, Transmission, Co-factors, and Vaccine Development.” Their work, conducted in the African nations of Rwanda and Zambia, is now under the aegis of the Rwanda Zambia Health Research Group based at Emory.
Dr. Susan Allen began the discussion focusing around her work with family planning and HIV prevention, first in Rwanda, and then, after the genocide there forced a move, in Zambia. Although the US has been a big contributor towards efforts to deal with AIDS in Africa ($28.67 billion) the amount is small (and proportionally smaller than that contributed by other countries) compared to our GDP (0.21%). Family planning is a significant need given the fact that women in Africa have a fertility rate of > 5 children/female, whereas most other countries are in the < 2.5 range. Even though it’s much lower than it used to be, this fertility rate, coupled with a decrease in infant and young women mortality (with many more surviving to childbearing years), has led to a tremendous growth in the African population and also a growth in poverty since poverty is associated with household size. These important facts are the major motivation for Susan’s work in the area of family planning.
About 75% of Africans are married. Half of HIV-positive married adults have a spouse who is HIV-negative, making them “discordant couples.” Some couples are both positive or both negative. And not surprisingly, 85% don’t know their HIV status. Counseling about family planning and HIV information has to be tailored to the variety of couple situations. New infections can be reduced by 2/3 when couples are tested for HIV together so appropriate counseling and action can follow. Any effective strategy for the prevention of AIDS must be critically examined from a cost point of view; strategies like circumcision, providing drugs to prevent mother-to- baby transmission, and encouraging girls to stay in school (rather than leave early, get sexually active, and become young mothers) must be cost effective compared to the cost for anti-retroviral therapy for discordant couples, which costs $9400/year.
Family planning with emphasis on decreasing the pregnancy rate centers on reversible contraceptives: 1) the newly designed copper intrauterine devices (IUDs) which may remain in place for up to 12 years, don’t have hormonal side effects, and cost only $0.62, or 2) the injectable hormonal implants, which are effective for up to 3-5 years. The clinics also screen for diabetes and hypertension. And they provide a basic home health-care kit with items and information to head off pneumonia, diarrhea, and parasitic infections (like cholera, by decontaminating the water with chloride). Counseling programs often promote participation by offering no-cost child-care for attendees, help with transportation, and other such incentives. Of course, these clinics have to be very cost-conscious, too.
Dr. Eric Hunter then reviewed his highly sophisticated research, which centers primarily in Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces in Zambia, studying the fingerprints of different HIV variants. The title of this segment of the presentation was “The Transmission and Pathogenesis of HIV: Lessons Learned in African Couples.”
Very simply, when the virus infects a human, it crosses the mucosal lining and attaches to CD4+ T-lymphocytes. CD4+ cells are effectors of antiviral immunity. Once inside a cell, the virus multiplies, destroys the cell, and releases virus, which in turn seeks other CD4+ cells to infect. Over time the CD4+ cells decline in the body and the viral load (the quantity of genetic material, in this case the HIV viral RNA particles present in the blood, or the copies/ml on testing) increases, and full blown AIDS eventually results over a period of 2 to 15 years, depending upon the host, the variants, and a number of other factors. Cleverly, the HIV virus destroys the CD4+ cells for their own benefit and eventually produce the immunodeficiency state. One can measure the progression of the disease by measuring the number of CD4+ cells and the viral load; as one decreases, the other increases.
(See below and note the timeline on the x-axis and appreciate that selection bias and host factors can influence the timeline of these changes in each individual. Note the Y-axis on the left in black represents the diminishment of the immune response, CD4+ T cells; whereas the Y-axis on the right in red represents the viral load and the development of full-blown AIDS).
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Dr Hunter decided to study the early natural history of HIV disease in discordant couples’ stored blood samples over a number of years before anti-retroviral drug therapy (ART) was readily available to see which viral variants are transmitted when the uninfected individual becomes positive. He used viral fingerprinting. He found that in 75-80% of cases the transmission came from the infected partner. And he found that in spite of a “diverse virus population (variants or different viruses that evolve in the host from the more ancestral virus) in chronically infected ‘donor’ partners, 80-90% of infections are established by a single virus variant (the more ancestral one) from the donor.” On the other hand, depending on the route of transmission and the presence of inflammation or ulceration of the mucosal barrier, “a proportion of transmission involves multiple variants (those that evolved in the host) from the same partner.”
Mind you, his understanding of the mucosal barrier and the susceptible target cells waiting on the other side is much more detailed and complicated than the simple description given above. Be that as it may, he was able to offer some conclusions about the presence of selection biases: “It [selection bias] was stronger when transmission was from women to healthy men, …but men with genital ulcers or genital inflammation have a lower barrier to infection and a selection bias similar to women.” He then related viral replication capacity (i.e., how quickly a sample of HIV reproduces, which can be slow or fast), viral set points (the viral load, copies/ml, that the body settles at within a few weeks to a few months after infection with HIV), and the decline in immunity to the development of AIDS. Obviously, a fast replication capacity will lead to more immunodeficiency more quickly, whereas a slow replication capacity will lead to a longer time before one reaches immunodeficiency.
Dr. Hunter’s focus then shifted to women and how they handle the infection. Whereas in the beginning of the epidemic the emphasis was on men, now 52% of all adults with HIV are women: 18.8 million. The number of new infections in 2018 in woman 15-24 years old was higher than the number for men in the same age group. And currently the leading cause of death in woman ages 15-49 is HIV/AIDS. Women differ from men in their immune response to the virus. He found that in general they have a lower viral load, but a more rapid decline in CD4+ cells after infection. The speculation is that this is related to estradiol, more activated CD4+ cells, and signaling of the type 1 interferon pathway.
His conclusions: 1) transmission of HIV involves selective as well as random processes, 2) the replicative capacity of the virus impacts the disease process, 3) men and women differ early in their disease progression, an effect in part related to estrogen, and 4) the disease is “the result of a complex interplay between viral and host genes and their expressed products.”
The last part of the Colloquium talk was given by Dr. Allen and focused on her experience of the Rwanda genocide that occurred between April and July 1994. She described how she and some of her staff departed Rwanda at the time of the genocide, but how she lost probably one-half her staff to this tragedy. She has become very interested and involved in a process that still continues—the identification of the perpetrators, where they fled (especially those who came to the US), and their prosecution. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has tried only three individuals. There are many more perpetrators who have been found, but the passage of time and eruption of other international issues seem to have reduced the enthusiasm for prosecutions in this case.
The basic scientific research and public health measures we heard about in this Lunch Colloquium contribute to the extension of healthy lives in the global community. Let us be thankful to these Emory faculty members who have traveled again and again to Africa over many decades now to help the inhabitants, saving many lives and, in the process, enriching science by contributing to our understanding of human disease and behavior. Well done, Susan and Eric!
--Jim Keller
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KATHERINE MITCHELL
HEARING THE TREES, CHAPTER III
UPCOMING EXHIBITION: MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Aug 7, 2021 - Oct 2, 2021
12pm - 4pm
About the Exhibition
“These works began when I discovered that a white oak in front of my house had become diseased. This series of paintings/drawings on paper were begun as talismans for the tree, and for me. As I worked, this tree began to symbolize all trees and our endangered environment. For some years I had tried to reconcile my concerns in visual art, and my environmental concerns. This door opened for me with this body of work. My research involves many walks in the woods, as well as reading numerous books on the subject, and my own journaling. My approach is poetic, rather than didactic. As Henry David Thoreau wrote, ‘A forest is in all mythologies a sacred place.'”
–Katherine Mitchell
The exhibition includes both never before shown artwork, and works previously exhibited between 2017 and 2018 at the Turchin Center, Appalachian State University (North Carolina) and The College of Environment and Design, University of Georgia.
About the Artist
Katherine Mitchell (b. 1944 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an Atlanta-based artist who received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and an MFA from the Georgia State University. Mitchell has exhibited extensively in Atlanta, across the United States, and abroad. She has had more than 20 solo exhibitions, including a major solo exhibition at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in 2005, and her first museum solo exhibition at Factory/Kunsthalle/Krems in Austria in 2006. In 2007, Atlanta City Gallery East held a retrospective exhibition that spanned 32 years of Mitchell’s career. Her work has been collected by numerous museums, including the High Museum, MOCA GA, the Carlos Museum, the Speed Museum in Louisville, KY, and the Arkansas Art Center. She has exhibited widely, with exhibitions in the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC and the American Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters in New York. Mitchell was one of three recipients of the 2010-2011 Working Artist Project award from MOCA GA, funded by The Charles Loridans Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a retired Senior Lecturer in Drawing & Painting at Emory University, where she taught for 29 years.
Image: Felled Forest with Ghost Trees, 2020, Acrylic, gouache, ink, graphite, and chine colle on Arches watercolor paper, 41 x 29 inches, by Katherine Mitchell
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Walking the Campus with Dianne |
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The steam stacks from our last walk can be found at the Campus Services Steam Plant on the main campus, located at 100 Water Tower Place, which is just off Eagle Row near the Depot.
Emory's (very necessary) Steam Plant is the heart of the University's heating system. It provides steam to 55 buildings on campus and is staffed by a dedicated team of employees who work in shifts around the clock to keep Emory warm.
For additional information, click the link below to read an article written in 2016 about Emory's steam plant:
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Since the next issue of this newsletter will be a month from now, instead of having you figure out where we are on campus, I will simply share a vision of summer at the familiar Emory University entrance gate.
Stay safe and we'll resume with the newsletter on August 25!
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Emory University Emeritus College
The Luce Center
825 Houston Mill Road NE #206
Atlanta, GA 30329
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