Nicholas Derda

Nick Derda (he/they) is a PhD candidate where he is currently completing his dissertation, tentatively entitled, Queering Care Ethics: Disseminating Counterpublic Health in the Age of AIDS. Based on original archival research, the dissertation examines the visual, textual, and digital communication techniques that AIDS workers have used to promote public health interventions from the 1980s through the present. Methodologically, the project draws on tools and concepts from queer studies, comics studies, biopolitics, and oral history to examine public health materials, such as comics, zines, graphic memoir, and digital campaigns. Nick has received financial support for his research from USC’s Center for Science, Technology, and Public Life, the USC Graduate School, and the Comics Studies Society. He has presented his research at regional and national conferences, including the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association-Pacific Coast Branch, and the Comics Studies Society. Prior to graduate school, he worked for several years with nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C.  providing direct services to vulnerable communities. 

• M.A. Gender Studies, George Washington University, 5/2018
• BA Spanish, Valparaiso University, 5/2012