Resource(s) Review: “United in Anger, ACT UP Study Guide” by Dr. Matt Brim & Website: “The Body: The HIV/AIDS Resource”

Reviews by Allison L. Cabana. Resources Credit to those cited below.

  1. UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT UP STUDY GUIDE, by Dr. Matt Brim, available @ https://academicworks.cuny.edu/si_oers/2/ ; https://www.unitedinanger.com/introductory-letter

Summary/Review: This intentionally designed open educational resource is, in the author’s own words, “been designed as a pedagogical experiment in interactivity among viewer, film, and filmmakers” to accompany the film, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. The study guide, with 5 complete units, an introduction, and addended resources and a glossary seems an excellent way to utilize the film in a classroom that is interdisciplinary and encourages student writing. As the film alone is already used in the course (SCN194), this study guide can act as a way to engage the additional course content at various points throughout the semester – in a way similar to how one might read a novel over the course of a month. As the film is layered, as is the history of ACT UP and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the study guide offers a chance to re-engage at various points. Perhaps also incorporating other films and materials covered later in the semester.

  1. The Body: The HIV/AIDS RESOURCE (Website): https://www.thebody.com/

Summary/Review: Cited in Brim’s “Uniter in Anger: A History of ACT UP Study Guide”, this website is openly available and free to access. The website has many different content areas (ex, “Living with HIV,” “Learn about HIV,” “News,” etc) and appears to offer resources that are distinctly educational about the virus and living with HIV, and that has analysis and current pieces that put HIV/AIDS in context now. The front page highlights activists and articles that highlight structural inequity, racism and white supremacy, and the relationship of the COVID-19 pandemic to living with HIV/AIDS. It seems like checking in on this website would be useful throughout the semester, as well as using it (as Dr. Brim suggests) before viewing United in Anger, in order to learn about HIV.

The perspectives offered in the pieces highlighted on the home page offer an interdisciplinary context that could prompt students to form their own analysis and to engage with HIV/AIDS in 2021, as it is connected to a long history and contemporarily.