About 

Emily Bass is a journalist, author, historian, artist and activist focusing on pandemics, the forces that perpetuate them, and the movements within bodies and in communities that recognize and resist them. Her book, To End a Plague: America’s Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa (PublicAffairs, 2021), was a finalist for the 2022 Lionel Gelber Prize. A Culture Push Associated Artist and Fulbright journalism fellowship recipient, Bass has also been awarded fellowships from NYSCA/NYFA (nonfiction), the Center for New Jewish Culture and the New York Public Library (Martin Duberman Visiting Research Fellowship). Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, n+1, and many other publications, including ‘zines made with the What Would an HIV Doula Do? collective, of which she is a member. She has spoken at Harvard University, Columbia University, and the Newark Museum of Art, and served as an external expert for the World Health Organization. From 2017 to 2021, she co-led a transnational activist coalition fighting for comprehensive HIV programs in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania, and worked alongside East and Southern African feminists for sexual and reproductive-health justice. As principal of The Bass Lab LLC, Bass has served as strategic advisor, communications strategist and writer for the Duke University Global Health Institute, the United States Department of State Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, the World Health Organization, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Georgetown O’Neill Institute for Global and National Health Law, Global Black Gay Men Connect, and many other organizations working on the frontlines of securing health and human rights for all. Collaborative action to redistribute power is central to her practice as an activist and inquiry as a writer. A Manhattan native, Emily lives in Brooklyn with her family.