Anthro 4134 - The AIDS Epidemic: Inequalities, Ethnography, and Ethics

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

In the year 2000, HIV became the world's leading infectious cause of adult death, and in the next 10 years, AIDS was expected to kill more people than all wars of the 20th century combined. As the global epidemic rages on, our greatest enemy in combating HIV/AIDS is not lack of knowledge or resources, but global inequalities and the conceptual frameworks with which we understand health, human interaction, and sexuality. This course emphasizes the ethnographic approach for cultural analysis of responses to HIV/AIDS. Students explore the relationship between local communities and wider historical and economic processes, and theoretical approaches to disease, the body, ethnicity/race, gender, sexuality, risk, addiction, power, and culture. Other topics covered include the cultural construction of AIDS and risk, government responses to HIV/AIDS, origin and transmission debates; ethics and responsibilities; drug testing and marketing; the making of the AIDS industry and "risk" categories; prevention and education strategies; interaction between biomedicine and alternative healing systems; and medical advances and hopes.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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