Richard Meisler was a Lecturer in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan. He earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University where he specialized in philosophy of science. Sadly, Dr. Meisler passed away in 2017 from complications of pancreatic cancer surgery. The University of Michigan continues to support his legacy and work by maintaining and supporting the courses he built to share with the world.

Dr. Meisler taught courses on contemporary social issues. He studied AIDS and taught courses about the HIV/AIDS pandemic for more than a decade. His course, AIDS: Fear and Hope, emphasizes the scale of the damage that the disease has caused. It also focuses on the multidisciplinary complexity of understanding AIDS. One begins with the biological and medical aspects of HIV and AIDS. It is also necessary to deal with issues of economics, politics, culture, and discrimination in order to fully understand the disaster.