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ANT486H1F –Ethnographies of HIV: Risk, Vulnerability, and Care
Fall 2014, Wed. 6-8, SS570
Prof. Holly Wardlow
hwardlow@chass.utoronto.ca
Office Hours: Thursdays 4-6pm
Course Description
This course examines HIV/AIDS globally and ethnographically along “the continuum of
care” – that is, we will examine the factors the make people vulnerable to HIV, strategies for
HIV awareness and prevention, and the experiences of people in care and on antiretroviral
drugs. Specific topics include: anthropological critiques of the concept of “risk groups”; the
experiences of sexual minorities; how religious institutions shape the understanding of HIV
as well as practices of care or exclusion; the role of gender relations and political economy
in creating ecologies of vulnerability; awareness campaigns and counseling as sites of
governmentality; and the complexities of ARV “scale-up.” Having taken ANT348H,
ANT345H, or ANT358H is strongly recommended.
Required Readings
The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV – Jennifer Hirsch et al.
Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana’s Time of AIDS – Frederick Klaits
Books are available at the UT bookstore. Other readings are available through the
Blackboard website for this course.
Course Requirements
(1)
Response papers – 40% (4 papers at 10 points each)
You must write four 3-4 page (double-spaced) response papers during the course.
“Response paper” means your reaction to the reading for that week. Your papers should
be structured in terms of “the 3 C’s”: Comprehension, Contribution, and Critique. In
other words, you should demonstrate your understanding of the reading, you should
discuss the contributions you think the reading makes to our analyses of HIV, and you
should critique the author’s analysis in some way. Throughout your paper you should also
compare and contrast a couple of articles. You do not need to discuss all 3 articles, but do
discuss at least 2.
Response papers are due the day that the reading is to be discussed. No late
papers accepted. I will ask for response papers at the end of each class—hold onto them
during the class so that you can refer to them if you want to during our discussion.
It is up to you when you would like to do a reaction paper. You have some flexibility since
there are more weeks in the course than there are response papers required. However, at
least 1 must be submitted by Oct. 22.
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(2)
Research Paper – 40% -- Due Monday, Dec. 1 by 11:00 pm.
Upload these to Blackboard (2% off per day late including Saturdays and Sundays).
Your choice of topic. These should be approximately 13 - 15 pages + a bibliography of
at least 10 sources from scholarly books or journals.
When you upload your paper to blackboard, please title your file with your
last name – e.g. Wardlow final paper. Your paper itself can have a different title, but
it is easier for me to keep the papers organized if you use your last name when
naming/saving your file. Please also use Word, not PDF, so I can use track changes to
make marginal and editorial comments.
Possible topics might be:
(1) Choose a particular intervention project – such as the Sonagachi project in Calcutta
or Ashodaya Samithi in Mysore. Provide a history of the project; describe its aims,
strategies, accomplishments, challenges and failures. Have anthropologists been
involved in the project? What contributions to, or critiques of, the project have they
made?
(2) In this class we do not have a week allocated to talking about the phenomenon of
“AIDS orphans.” What are the challenges faced by children and youth whose parent
or parents have died of AIDS-related causes? Do they differ from children orphaned
by other causes? What interventions have been aimed at them and with what goals
in mind? (NB: one of UT’s anthropologists, Prof. Bianca Dahl, is an expert on this
topic, so you might want to email her, interview her, read her work, etc.)
(3) Similarly, in this class, we do not have a week dedicated to talking about pediatric
HIV – that is, children who became HIV+ through parent-to-child transmission
(during birth, breast-feeding). What kind of challenges do these children face? How
do parents or other care-takers manage the issue of revealing the child’s HIV status
to the child him or herself, as well as to others? NB: one of UT’s PhD students, Laura
Sikstrom, is writing about these issues based on fieldwork in Malawi.
(4) Currently there is a lot of discussion in policy circles about “treatment-asprevention” and the goal to create an “AIDS-free generation” through massive
testing and treatment.
http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/mtct/programmatic_update_tasp/en/
http://www.cfenet.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/news/forecast/November%
20Forecast.pdf
What is the logic behind this strategy? Who supports it and who doesn’t? What
critiques are being made of this strategy?
(5) The role of religion in HIV is complex and contentious. Arguments can be made that
religious institutions have encouraged the stigmatization of PLWHA and have
impeded productive interventions, such as condom promotion, and promoted
unrealistic interventions, such as abstinence. Arguments can also be made that
religious institutions have encouraged attitudes of care and empathy towards
PLWHA. Try to parse this complicated issue.
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If you don’t know what you want to do, start by searching for “HIV” in some of the
journal titles below, and see what catches your interest.
Journal Resources
Social Science and Medicine
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Medical Anthropology
Culture, Health and Sexuality
Global Public Health
Critical Public Health
Journal of the International AIDS Society
AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV
(3) Class Participation – 20%. In class we will sometimes break down into small
group for discussion and then each group will give a brief presentation to the
class. Active participation in small group discussion and serving as the
“presenter” for your group will count towards your class participation, as will
regular contributions to our weekly class discussions of readings.
Academic Integrity
The University of Toronto treats cases of academic misconduct very seriously. Academic
integrity is a fundamental value of learning and scholarship at the U of T. Participating
honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in this academic community ensures that
your U of T degree is valued and respected as a true signifier of your individual academic
achievement.
The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters
(http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Pol
icies/PDF/ppjun011995.pdf) outlines the behaviours that constitute academic misconduct,
the processes for addressing academic offences, and the penalties that may be imposed.
You are expected to be familiar with the contents of this document. Potential offences
include, but are not limited to:
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Using someone else’s ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement or
citation.
Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the
instructor.
Making up sources or facts.
Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment (this includes
working in groups on assignments that are supposed to be individual work).
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Outline and Readings
Week 1 – Sept. 10
Introductions
Week 2 – Sept. 17
Africa and HIV: How to Conceptualize Causality
NB: Read the Caldwell et al. article first and write down a few thoughts about it. What are
its strengths? What critiques do you have? After you have written down your own
opinion and critiques, then read the Heald article.
Caldwell, J. C., Caldwell, P., & Quiggin, P. “The Social Context of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Population and Development Review 15(2): 185-234, (1989).
Suzette Heald – “The Power of Sex: Some Reflections on the Caldwells’ ‘African Sexuality’
Thesis.” Africa 65(4): 489-505,1995.
Week 3 – Sept. 24
Problems with Risk Groups, Identity Categories, and
Reified Models of Transmission I (CSWs)
Holly Wardlow – “Anger, Economy, and Female Agency: Problematizing “Prostitution” and
“Sex Work” among the Huli
of Papua New Guinea.” Signs 29(4): 1017-1040, 2004.
Mark Hunter – “The Materiality of Everyday Sex: Thinking Beyond Prostitution.” African
Studies 61(1), 2002.
Hawkins et al. – “Milking the Cow: Young Women’s Construction of Identity and Risk in
Age-disparate Transactional Sexual Relationships in Maputo, Mozambique.” Global
Public Health 4(2):169-82, 2009.
Week 4 – Oct. 1
Problems with Risk Groups, Identity Categories, and
Reified Models of Transmission II (hetero, homo, MSM)
Gayatri Reddy – “Geographies of Contagion: Hijras, Kothis, and the Politics of Sexual
Marginality in Hyderabad.” Anthropology and Medicine 12 (3): 255-270, 2005.
Carol Jenkins – “The Homosexual Context of Heterosexual Practice” (in Aggleton edited
volume Bisexualities and AIDS)
Robert Lorway – “Dispelling ‘Heterosexual African AIDS’ in Namibia: Same‐sex Sexuality in
the Township of Katutura.” Culture, Health and Sexuality 8(5): 435-49, 2006.
Week 5 – Oct. 8
Gender, Political Economy, and HIV Vulnerability
The Secret - Introduction
Sanyu Mojola – “Fishing in Dangerous Waters: Ecology, Gender and Economy in HIV Risk.”
Social Science and Medicine 72(2):149-56, 2011.
Catherine Campbell – “Migrancy, Masculine Identities and AIDS: the Psychosocial Context
of HIV Transmission on the South African Gold Mines.” Social Science and
Medicine (SS&M) 45(2): 273-281, 1997.
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Week 6 – Oct. 15
Gender, Political Economy, and HIV Vulnerability
The Secret – Choose 2 of the “Area” chapters (Mexico, Nigeria, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea,
Uganda) + the Conclusion. You will be divided into small groups at the beginning of
class according to one of the area chapters you read, and your group will present the
main points to the rest of the class.
Week 7 – Oct. 22
Awareness and Prevention Ideologies and Practices
Stacy Pigg – “Globalizing the Facts of Life” (in Adams and Pigg (eds.), Sex in Development:
Science, Sexuality, and Morality in Global Perspective)
Nicole Angotti – “Working Outside of the Box: How HIV Counselors in Sub-Saharan Africa
Adapt Western HIV Testing Norms.” SS&M 71(5): 986-93, 2010.
Evans and Lambert – “The Limits of Behaviour Change Theory: Condom Use and Contexts
of HIV Risk in the Kolkata Sex Industry.” CH&S 10(1): 27–41, 2008.
Week 8 - Oct. 29
Religion, Faith and Care
Frederick Klaits – Death in a Church of Life, Introduction – Chapter 3
Week 9 - Nov. 5
Religion, Faith and Care
Frederick Klaits – Death in a Church of Life, Chapter 4 – end
Week 10 – Nov. 12
Antiretrovirals
Barry Adam – “Epistemic Fault Lines in Biomedical and Social Approaches to HIV
Prevention.” Journal of the International AIDS Society 14 (Suppl 2:S2), 2011.
Ippolytos Kalofonos – “‘All I Eat Is ARVs’: The Paradox of AIDS Treatment Interventions in
Central Mozambique.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 24(3): 363–380, 2010.
Louise Rasmussen – “Counselling Clients to Follow ‘The Rules’ of Safe Sex and ARV
Treatment.” Culture, Health and Sexuality 15 (Suppl 4):S537-52, 2013.
Week 11 – Nov. 19
HIV and Corporate Responsibility
Nora Kenworthy – “A Manufactu(RED) Ethics: Labor, HIV, and the Body in Lesotho's
“Sweat-free” Garment Industry.” MAQ, online June 2014.
Dinah Rajak – “‘HIV/AIDS is Our Business’: the Moral Economy of Treatment in a
Transnational Mining Company.” JRAI 16(3): 551-571, 2010.
Week 12– Nov. 26
Discussion of Wardlow interviews with Women Living
with HIV
Interviews to be supplied by Prof. Wardlow