Formative narratives in times of a pandemic: human conundrum and HIV realities

Formative narratives in times of a pandemic: human conundrum and HIV realities is an Interdisciplinary Arts course taught by Jill Lewis.

This course requires prerequisites.

Course Description
This course will explore diverse cultural and social factors that have shaped the HIV epidemics in different parts of Africa and among certain populations in the US. It will look at the ways we have come to understand, imagine and respond to the problems HIV poses. While attentive to issues surfacing internationally in the face of HIV and AIDS, we will examine some of the realities framing HIV and AIDS in different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and African American communities in the US today. The aim is to excavate the complexity of the political, economic, religious and cultural visions that have prevailed in the recent decades, and explore how attitudes and beliefs about gender and sexuality remain key obstacles to engaging with HIV more effectively, through the assumptions, stigma and discrimination they can fertilise. Films will open discussion about creative representations of HIV at particular times in particular places. Students will build a portfolio of short papers and each undertake a larger collaborative/joint research project focused on a particular angle of the challenges in building innovative and creative responses to HIV prevention, linking analysis to active engagement. This is a course for Div II students. Students interested in working with arts and social action focus are particularly welcome (- as are men students - who, internationally, tend to shy away from HIV issues - the issue needs you!). Readings will include Kalpeni et al, HIV & AIDS in Africa:beyond epidemiology; Epstein, The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight against AIDS; Boler & Archer, The Politics of Prevention: a Global Crisis in AIDS and Education; Susser, AIDS, Sex and Cultre; Levenson, The Secret Epidemic: the Story of AIDS and Black America. Films will include: Beat the Drum, Yesterday, The Silent Partner- HIV in marriage; The Heart of the Matter; Scenes from Africa, Steps for the Future, Philadelphia, And the Band Played On, All of US.