Guest Lecturer: Dr. Daniel Knuchel -German & Scandinavian Studies, Universität Zürich

Discourse Latency: Conceptualizations of HIV/AIDS in the Era of Post-Infectiousness in German-speaking Switzerland

Advances in HIV treatment have transformed HIV from a fatal illness into a manageable chronic condition, and under certain conditions, HIV-positive individuals are no longer infectious. Despite the destigmatizing potential of these developments, they have only partially entered public knowledge. This talk examines how HIV/AIDS is discussed in contemporary German-speaking Switzerland, asking what happens to public discourse when a once-urgent topic fades from collective attention