UVA Bjoring Center for Nursing History Forum Event 2.20.24

12 p.m. - 1 p.m. (ET)

In 1986, Iowa nurse Barbara Fassbinder was one of the first health-care professionals in the U.S. to become infected with HIV on the job through a non-needlestick injury. In the aftermath, Fassbinder became a forceful advocate for mandatory glove policies and against mandatory HIV testing requirements. She also embarked on a speaking tour, focusing on conservative church congregations in the Midwest. Drawing on her identities as a nurse and a devout Catholic, Fassbinder worked to persuade religiously conservative audiences that homophobic responses to the HIV pandemic hampered public health and did not align with Christian traditions that emphasized compassion. Fassbinder’s experiences brings into focus how some nurses responded to medical distrust, misinformation, and homophobia during the 1980s.

Karissa Haugeberg is an associate professor of history at Tulane University. Her first book, Women Against Abortion: Inside the Largest Moral Reform Movement of the Twentieth Century (Illinois, 2017), explored women’s participation as leaders and foot soldiers in the grassroots anti-abortion movement. Her current book project, “Nursing a Revolution,” explores the intersections between civil rights, feminism, and LGBTQ+ activism and the nursing profession in the U.S. since 1965. She has received support from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University.

We hope you'll join us!

Maura Singleton
Center Manager
Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry

E [email protected]
P 434.924.0083; 434.989.1550 (cell)

UVA School of Nursing
202 Jeanette Lancaster Way
P.O. Box 800782
Charlottesville, VA 22908-0782

www.nursing.virginia.edu/nursing-history/