Alexander McClelland
Alexander McClelland is a doctoral student at the Interdisciplinary Centre on Culture and Society, Concordia University under the supervision of Dr. Viviane Namaste. His interdisciplinary focus is on the intersection of law and life, and includes work in the fields of HIV and AIDS studies, critical legal studies and surveillance studies. His doctoral thesis will examine the Canadian context of HIV criminalization and will document the lives of people who have been criminally charged and/or prosecuted in relation to not disclosing their HIV-positive status to sex partners. McClelland completed his master's degree at York University in Environmental Studies, where he worked with Dr. Sarah Flicker to focus on the consequences of bureaucratization on AIDS service organizations in Toronto. McClelland is the recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) doctoral HIV/AIDS Community-Based Research Award (2013-2016), CIHR Social Research Centre in HIV Prevention (SRC) Student Award (2014), the Concordia Arts & Science Fellowship (2012-2015), the Donald Boisvert Scholarship for Gay and Lesbian Studies (2012), the CIHR Master’s Award in HIV/AIDS Community-Based Research (2010-2011), the University Without Walls Fellowship (2009), and the Ontario AIDS Network Leadership Award (2009).
AIDS Organizing, Services, Bureaucratization & the State: Where Do We Go From Here?
As we are now more than 30 years into the epidemic, new questions, consequences and outcomes have been developing in relation to the changing nature of ASOs. With the move towards service integration, streamlined funding, and the so-called ‘end of HIV exceptionalism’ there is a renewed interest in the consequences of the HIV social service sector as a whole and how it is shaped and organized in relation to state priorities. Thus, I will be collaboratively hosting aone-day KTE and community-dialogue event on the role of community-based AIDS organizations in Canada.
The event will host a series of presenters including community members and academics that will discuss questions such as: What have ASOs accomplished over time? What are the limits of current community-based practice based on engagement with the state? Are today’s ASOs adequately resourced and designed to undertake their intended role? Is this role sufficient to address the ongoing and emerging HIV issues that marginalized communities face? What are the consequences of using traditional monitoring and evaluation methods to understand the limitations and potential of community-based HIV work? What are the consequences of increased levels of surveillance and reporting to the state in our daily work? Due to state constraints what are the consequences on advocacy possibilities for ASOs, or ASO involvement in social and policy change?
This one-day KTE and community-dialogue event will examine community-based responses to HIV in Canada, including the impacts and consequences of neoliberal state policy, and the limitations and potential of these responses. Target audiences for this project are people living with HIV, front-line workers in ASOs, policy-makers, public health professionals and social science and humanities researchers.
