Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Mark Roy McGrath Humanities and Social Science

Transgression, Media-Objects, Counter-Publics

This study proposes an investigation of the production and distribution of media products, in the form of images and pornographic texts that depict and eroticize sexual practices deemed high-risk by public health officials. In the United States, the mid 1990s saw the emergence of social practices within at-risk populations that both celebrate and promote condomless sexual encounters. Since 1997 through to the present, several homegrown media productions companies have emerge that explicitly produce media that depict and promote unprotected sexual encounters. This project will evaluate the relationship and dynamics between the circulation of this media and the emergence and continuation of the social practice. This project has the potential of informing both the fields of anthropology and public health.

Message To Sponsor

Mark Roy McGrath grew up in working class copper mining towns throughout eastern Nevada and New Mexico. He served four years with distinction in the United States Army and is now an active participant in Veterans for Peace. As a transfer student he started his college academics at San Diego City College where he was awarded the Chancellors Scholarship and was commencement speaker for graduation. Since his arrival at U.C. Berkeley, Mark has consistently remained on the Deans List with the college of Letters and Science. His primary focus within anthropology has been the social ramifications and resulting life worlds brought about by AIDS. Upon graduation, Mark intendeds to continue in a medical anthropology graduate program.