About

Chris Cynn is an associate professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, affiliated with the departments of African American Studies and English. Her interdisciplinary research draws from feminist, queer of color and cultural studies to explore literary and visual productions of illness, health, memory and archives. She is the author of "Prevention: Gender, Sexuality, HIV, and the Media in Côte d'Ivoire," as well as a number of articles in journals such as Camera Obscura, Journal of Asian American Studies, Women's Studies Quarterly, and Transformations. She has co-edited a collection of essays on literary and visual representations of HIV/AIDS. In addition, she has worked as a full-time community organizer and is the co-producer of a documentary on a human rights trial in Haiti, and the co-producer and director of a number of short videos. Currently, Cynn is the director of the Medical Humanities Lab at the Humanities Research Center and the scholar/administrator of the History and Health Program in the Office of Health Equity at VCU Health.