Science + Literature: Investigating Disease and Access

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Closeup of Eastern Bloodsucking Conenose found on a patch of dried grass. Courtesy of L. Brown/Flickr
Did you know the kissing bug has infected more than 300,000 people in the Latinx community living in the US with a rare and devastating illness? 

Join Daisy Hernández, author of The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease, and Curator Jessica L. Ware of the Museum’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology for a conversation about the personal and political aspects of scientific research and access.  

Part investigative science journalism, part memoir, The Kissing Bug follows Hernández’s journey to better understand Chagas, an infectious disease that disproportionately affects the Latinx community. The Kissing Bug is an inaugural selected title of the National Book Foundation’s new Science + Literature program, which celebrates work that deepens readers’ understanding of science and technology, and the diversity of voices in scientific writing.  

This program is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.