For the Ottawa Canadian Law and Society annual Congress Conference meeting in 2015 I presented a collaborative presentation for the keynote panel based on work with my colleague Dr. Adrian Guta. This work will also be presented at the upcoming Surveillance and Society Conference in Barcelona. This is the abstract for the presentation:
This presentation examines the implications of new HIV treatment and prevention technologies in the form of HIV ‘treatment as prevention’ (TasP) and ‘pre-exposure prophylaxis’ (PrEP) in relation to the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure and exposure in Canada and the potential for mandatory treatment adherence. Drawing on an analytic of governmentality, this presentation explores new clinical and public health surveillance technologies focused on the both the care and control of persons living with HIV who achieve an undetectable viral load through antiretroviral adherence, and the ‘high risk’ gay man who uses PrEP(with lower doses of antiretroviral therapy) to protect himself against infection. This presentation considers the implications of these new technologies of risk, surveillance, and the practices of the self for both people living with and the ‘at risk’ who are required to engage in new ways with therapeutic providers who diagnose, prescribe, monitor, and share this information with public health and potentially with law enforcement.