Thomas Lawrence Long Dissertation

Provenance

This collection was a gift of Thomas Lawrence Long in September of 2009.

Scope and Content

This collection contains approximately three inches of content stored in three folders. It is a draft of Dr. Thomas Lawrence Long’s doctoral dissertation which eventually became the book AIDS and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic published in 2012. The dissertation focuses on the discourse of AIDS in New York City between 1981 and 1996. This piece examines apocolyptic tropes and HIV/AIDS effected/infected communities and how these tropes help contribute to the culture within the gay community in New York City. Thomas L. Long examines the ways in which gay and AIDS activists, artists, writers, scientists, and journalists appropriated this apocalyptic rhetoric in order to mobilize attention to the medical crisis, prevent the spread of the disease, and treat the HIV infected. Dr. Long explores this topic through performing arts, theater, history, and literary criticism.

History or Bio

Dr. Thomas Lawrence Long is an associate professor-in-residence in the School of Nursing at the University of Connecticut. He has enjoyed a career as a scholar, writer, editor, and writing coach in higher education for over two decades. Dr. Long has published a book (AIDS and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic) and articles on topics in the medical humanities (literary and cultural representations of the body, sexuality, and disease), has served as editor-in-chief of an international literary journal (Harrington Gay Men’s Literary Quarterly, published by Haworth/Taylor & Francis), and has been a consultant for individual, business, and government clients. His PhD is in English (with a specialization in early American studies from Indiana University of Pennsylvania); he has two MA degrees (one in English from the University of Illinois, the other in Theology from the Catholic University of America). Dr. Long is a member of: the Modern Language Association; the American Studies Association; the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS); the International Writing Centers Association; the International Academy of Nursing Editors; the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing; and the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, as well as a member of the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities.

Folder List