About

David Gere, PhD, is the founding director of the UCLA Art & Global Health Center and is a professor in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where he teaches courses in arts activism. His extensive writing and global curatorial projects address arts-based public health interventions and projects. Through the UCLA Art & Global Health Center, Gere and his students engage local and global communities, from the UCLA Sex Squad’s entertainment-education performances for Los Angeles high schools to the Through Positive Eyes HIV-positive photo-storytelling project in cities around the world.

As director of the UCLA Art & Global Health Center, Gere spearheads and evaluates programs that leverage storytelling, humor, and self-reflection to critically examine and, ultimately, challenge the taboos associated with topics such as sex education, HIV/AIDS, mental health, and healthcare utilization.

Expertise

Arts activism, HIV and public health, and diversity education.

Creative Practice & Research

• Recent courses include: Intro to World Arts and Cultures, Theorizing Arts Activism, Art & Global Health, Arts Encounters, MAKE ART/STOP AIDS, and UCLA Sex Squad.
• Publications include: Sex Squad: Engaging Humour to Reinvigorate Sexual Health Education, How to Make Dances in an Epidemic, Looking Out: Perspectives on Dance and Criticism in a Multicultural World, and Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader.
• Traveling international exhibitions include: MAKE ART/STOP AIDS (2008), The A.R.T. Show (2011), and Through Positive Eyes (2016 - present).