SYLLABUS
CULTURE AND AIDS (A,D,J)
ANT 317.01 Spring 2004
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00-4:30 P.M.
Dr. Douglas A. Feldman
Professor
SUNY College at Brockport
Department of Anthropology
dfeldman@brockport.edu
(585) 395-5709
Course Description:
Explores the
cultural, social, epidemiologic, political, psychological, philosophical,
economic, public health, and public policy dimensions of HIV/AIDS on a global
level, especially in the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. Focuses upon women and children with AIDS,
men who have sex with men and other at-risk populations, HIV prevention
strategies, theoretical issues, social stigma and discrimination, the influence
of the pandemic on other aspects of society and culture, and the meaning and
importance of HIV/AIDS.
Required Texts:
Feldman, Douglas A.
and Wang Miller, Julia (eds.) (1998) [TAC]
The
AIDS Crisis: A Documentary History.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Feldman, Douglas A.
(ed.) (1994) [GAP]
Global
AIDS Policy. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
Additional reading
packet (to be distributed).
Course Topics:
Introduction to AIDS
as a cultural and public health issue.
The importance of AIDS. The
epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the United States.
The AIDS crisis. The origin of HIV/AIDS.
An epidemic emerges. The shaping of public opinion. The situation in the United States. The global crisis. The epidemic takes its toll. Teenagers.
Women. Children. The gay community. Commercial sex workers. The homeless. Persons with hemophilia. Injecting drug users. Correctional
facilities. The African pandemic. The growing crisis in Asia. AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean. China.
Latin America. Traditional
medicine. Uganda. Ghana.
South Africa. Breast
feeding. The many faces of AIDS. Psychosocial needs of persons with AIDS. The role of families, partners, and friends
of people with AIDS. The role of health
care providers and caregivers. Community
responses to the crisis. Political
apathy. Political activism. Immigration
policy. Political economy. Promoting awareness and education. Producing behavioral change. Barebacking.
Gay politics. Patient
adherence. Risky and less risky
sex. Club drugs. AIDS in the workplace. Legal issues.
Ethics and AIDS policy. Mandatory
reporting. Mandatory testing. Partner notification. The future of AIDS.
Reading Schedule:
January 27: Welcome and Introduction.
January 29: WebMD
with AOL Health. “Understanding AIDS/HIV
-- the Basics, Symptoms, Detection & Treatment, Prevention,” http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com,
2004..
The
CIA World Factbook, “Rank Order - HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate,”
www.cia.gov, 2004.
The
CIA World Factbook, “Rank Order - HIV/AIDS - people living with AIDS,”
www.cia.gov, 2004.
Jeremy
Lovell, “WHO Reports on Top 10 Killers,” Reuters, October 30, 2002.
Emma
Ross, “Report: Women Make Up Half of HIV Cases,” www.unaids.org, November 26,
2002.
Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, “Introduction,” in The AIDS Crisis: A Documentary History (TAC) (Eds.: D.A. Feldman
and J. Wang Miller); pp. xxv-xxxix, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Video.
February 3: Douglas A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller,
Chapter 1, “The History of
HIV/AIDS,”
in TAC; pp.1-29.
February 5: Gina
Kolata, “The Genesis of an Epidemic: Humans, Chimps and a Virus,” New York Times, September 4, 2001.
Garret,
“HIV Subtypes: African, Asian Strains Cropping Up in New York City,” Newsday, January 31, 2001.
Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, Chapter 2, “The Impact of the Epidemic,” in TAC; pp.30-53.
February 10: Jennifer Steinhauer, “AIDS Altered the Fabric
of New York in Ways Subtle and Vast,” New
York Times, June 4, 2001.
Patricia
J. Mays, “Unsafe Sex May Be Increasing,” The
Associated Press.
Susan
Jordan, “HIV Infection No Longer in Decline,” The Empty Closet (Rochester), pp.1,3,11, September 2001.
“AIDS
Carriers Banned From Swimming in Ocean...because they’re killing the sharks!,” Weekly World News, p.6, August 24, 1993.
February 12: Douglas A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller,
Chapter 3, “HIV/AIDS Within Communities and Populations,” in TAC; pp. 54-116.
February 17: Daniel Q. Haney. “Chat Rooms a Meeting Place for Risky Sex,”
www.retroconference.org/2003/, February 11, 2003.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “Public Health
Officials Consider Legal Action to Force AOL, Web Sites to Warn MSM About
Syphilis Outbreaks,” January 23, 2004.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. New York City
Health Workers Say Crystal Meth Use Helping to Spread HIV Among Men Who Have
Sex with Men,” January 12, 2004.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “Canadian AIDS
Groups Ask Human Rights Commission to Investigate Catholic Church Policy
Requiring HIV Testing,” January 16, 2004.
IRIN
Plus News, “Stigmatised Men who have Sex [with] Men (MSM) Receive Little
Support,” March 14, 2002.
February 19: Robert G. Carlson, et al., “Ethnography,
Epidemiology, and Public Policy: Needle-Use Practices and HIV-1 Risk Reduction
Among Injecting Drug Users in the Midwest,” in GAP; pp. 185-214.
Michael
C. Clatts, et al., “AIDS Risk Behavior among Drug Injectors in New York City:
Critical Gaps in Prevention Policy,” in GAP;
pp. 215-235.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “New York Times Examines Debate Over
Access to Clean Needles, AIDS Epidemic in New Jersey,” January 13, 2004.
February 24: Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, Chapter 4, “AIDS in the
Developing World,” in TAC;
pp. 117-134.
February 26: Douglas
A. Feldman, “Introduction,” in Global
AIDS Policy (GAP)
(ed.: D.A. Feldman); pp. 1-6, Westport, CT: Bergin &
Garvey, 1994.
Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS
Report. “U.N. Secretary-General Annan
Launches Global Media
AIDS Initiative to Educate Public About HIV/AIDS,” January 16, 2004.
Jim Abrams, “House Panel
Approves $15B to Combat AIDS,” Associated Press, April 2, 2003.
Naomi Klein, “Bush’s
AIDS Test,” The Nation, p.12, October
27, 2003.
Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS
Report. “Clinton Foundation Deal Will
Reduce Price of Viral Load, CD4+ Tests for
Developing Countries by as Much as 80%,”
January 15, 2004.
March 2: Video.
March 4: Vincent E. Gil, “Behind the Wall of
China: AIDS Profile, AIDS Policy,” in GAP;
pp. 7-27.
Pomfret,
“Washington Post Examines Blood Trade in China,” “Sex Trade,” Washington Post, January 11, 2001.
Lakhan, “Pacific Rim:
Sees Growing HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” Agence
France Presse, February
23, 1999.
John
J. Lumpkin, “Russia, China, India Face HIV Crisis,” Associated Press, October
1, 2002.
Mort
Rosenblum, “Dying Young: As AIDS rages in Asia, experts fear funds may be too
little, too late,” Democrat and Chronicle,
21A, 23A, September 21, 2003.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “China’s HIV/AIDS
Response Should be Similar to SARS Response, Experts Say,” January 15, 2004.
March 9: Richard
G. Parker, “Public Policy, Political Activism, and AIDS in Brazil,” in GAP; pp.28-46.
Pamela Hartigan, “The
Response of Nongovernmental Organizations in
Latin
America to HIV Infection and AIDS: A Vehicle for Grasping the Contribution NGOs
Make to Health and Development,” in GAP;
pp.47-60.
Deibert, “Political
Quagmire Holds Up Foreign Aid Needed to Fight HIV/AIDS
in Haiti,” Reuters/South Florida
Sun-Sentinel, January 23, 2002.
March 11: Midterm
exam.
March 16: No class, Spring break.
March 18: No class, Spring break.
March 23: Review of midterm exam.
Charles B. Rwabukwali,
et al. “Culture, Sexual Behavior, and Attitudes toward
Condom Use among Baganda Women,” in GAP;
pp. 70-89.
U.S.
Agency for International Development.
“The ABCs of HIV Prevention,” www.usaid.gov, June 2003.
Henry
Wasswa, “Group: Violence Spreads AIDS in Uganda,” Associated Press, August 13,
2003.
Robert W. Porter, “AIDS in Ghana: Priorities and Policies,”
in GAP; pp.90-
106.
March 25: Harry
Dunphy, “Study: AIDS Devastating Africa,” The
Associated Press, October 31, 2000.
Mark Schoofs, “AIDS: the Agony of Africa - Part One: The
Virus Creates a Generation of
Orphans,” The Village Voice, November
3-9, 1999.
Edward
C. Green, “The Male Circumcision and AIDS Issue,” Lancet, 35 (9207), p. 927, March 11, 2000.
“Radio,
Sporting Events and Adult Cinemas Used for AIDS Education Efforts in Africa,” Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, January
24, 2002.
March 30: Virginia
van der Vliet, “Apartheid and the Politics of AIDS,” in GAP; pp.107-129.
Sohail
Agha and Mwaba Chulu Nchima, “HIV Risk Behaviour among Zambian Sex Workers,”
Population Services International, www.id21.org/health/h5psi1g9, September 10,
2002.
Dominque
de Santis, “Expert Group Stresses that Unsafe Sex is Primary Mode of HIV
Transmission in Africa,” UNAIDS, www.unaids.org, March 14, 2003.
Donald
G. McNeil, Jr., “Africans Outdo Americans in Following AIDS Therapy,”
www.nytimes.com/2003/09/03/health/03IMMU, September 3, 2003.
Festud
A. Ukwuani, Amy O. Tsui, and Chirayath M. Suchindran, “Condom Use for
Preventing HIV Infection/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Multilevel
Analysis of Uganda and Tanzania,” Journal
of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 34(2):203-213, October 1, 2003;
abstract only from www.aegis.com, January 7, 2004.
April
1: Video.
April 6: Helen Epstein, “Why is AIDS Worse in Africa?,”
Discover Magazine, 25(2), February 2004 (from AIDS and Anthropology Research
Group listserv).
Dana
Raphael, “The Politics of International Health: Breastfeeding and HIV,” in GAP; pp.129-141.
Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, Chapter 5, “The Human Side of AIDS,” in TAC, pp. 135-158.
Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, Chapter 6, “The Politics of
AIDS,” in TAC, pp.
159-182.
Norris
G. Lang, “HIV, Immigration Policy, and Latinos/as: Public Health Safety versus
Hidden Agendas,” in GAP, pp. 61-69.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “United States
Should Not Deport HIV-Positive Immigrants, Opinion Piece Says,” January 12,
2004.
Michael
D. Quam, “AIDS Policy and the United State Political Economy,” in GAP, pp. 142-159.
M.E.
Melody, “Acting Up Academically: AIDS and the Politics of Disempowerment,” in GAP, pp. 160-184.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “NIH Director
Zerhuni to Send Letter to Lawmakers Defending Agency’s Funding of AIDS, Sexual
Health Research,” January 13, 2004.
April 8: Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, Chapter 7, “Education and Behavioral Change,”
in TAC, pp. 183-200.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “Texas County
With Abstinence-Only Sex Education Curriculum Shows Increases in Teen
Pregnancy, STDs,” January 21, 2003.
Robinson,
“Jesse Jackson Implores Black Church Leaders to Fight AIDS,” Miami Herald, March 16, 1999.
Brenda
C. Coleman, “Some AIDS Patients Withhold Info,” The Associated Press, February 8, 1998.
April 13: Michael James, “Condoms No Longer
Available in Many Bars,” The Express (Fort
Lauderdale), p.3, April 23, 2001.
“Possible
Barebacking Harm Minimization Strategies,” cruisingforsex.com,
November 6, 1998.
Michael
Alvear, “Testing Positive: What are the Chances? What are the Odds?,” The Express (Fort Lauderdale), May 7, 2001.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “Condoms Fail to
Protect Against HIV 10% of Time Due to Human Error, UNAIDS Draft Report Says,”
June 23, 2003.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “Catholic
Cardinal Backs Use of Condoms in Preventing HIV Transmission,” January 14,
2004.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “Only 10% of
Patients Referred for HIV Testing by Emergency Rooms Undergo Test, Study Says,”
January 23, 2004.
April 18: Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, Chapter 8, “Legal and Ethical Issues,” in TAC; pp. 201-233.
Douglas
A. Feldman, “Conclusion,” in GAP; pp.
236-240.
April 20: Douglas
A. Feldman and Julia Wang Miller, Chapter 9, “The Future of AIDS,” in TAC; pp. 234-251.
Adams,
“Scientist Accuses Government Agencies of Competing, Conducting Duplicative
AIDS Vaccine Research,” Wall Street
Journal, January 24, 2002.
Uamdao
Noikorn, “Thailand Rejects AIDS Vaccine Criticism,” Associated Press, January
16, 2004.
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. “Increased Number
of Low-Income HIV-Positive People, High Price of Fuzeon Creating Care
‘Rationing,’” January 13, 2004.
April 22: Class
presentations.
April 27: Class presentations.
April 29: Class
presentations.
May 4: Class
presentations.
May 6: Class
presentations.
May 10-14: Final
exam week. All papers due on day of
exam.
About four videos will be shown. It is possible that we may have one or more
guest
speakers.
Course
Requirements and Grade:
Research Paper: 25%
Midterm Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 25%
Class participation
and presentation: 25%
:
TOTAL: 100%
Students will prepare
a 7-9 page research paper. See attached
guidelines. Students will give an oral
presentation in front of the class of five minutes, with 5-10 minutes for discussion,
about their paper topic.
Class participation
includes constructive participation in which the student demonstrates having
read the assigned readings and has thought deeply about the content. Students are expected to spend at least six
hours per week preparing for the class sessions. The professor may call upon students to
discuss the assigned readings.
The midterm exam and
the final exam will be essay questions.
The final exam is not cumulative.
Disability Statement:
I
would appreciate hearing from anyone in this class who has a special need that
may be the result of a disability. I am
reasonably sure we can work out whatever arrangement is necessary, be it
special seating, testing, or other accommodation. See me after class, or during my office
hours, as soon as possible.
Attendance Policy:
Attendance
will be taken at the beginning of each session, and it is important that you
not be late for class. Students who have
seven unexcused absences will receive a lowered grade (e.g., A = A-). Each additional two unexcused absences will
receive a further lowered grade (e.g., A = B+).
Absences will be excused for a)
written documented illnesses of the student,
b) official representation of the College, c) death of a close relative, d) religious holiday, and e) other circumstances beyond the control of
the student as determined by the professor.
If you are not requesting to be excused, students do not need to notify
the professor of their absence or lateness by either phone or e-mail, except
for an exam or for the oral presentation.
Students who arrive late to class must inform the professor at the end
of the session to make sure they are not marked absent that day. Students who must leave early on a particular
day need to notify the professor before the class. If the reason is not excusable, the student
will be marked with a half absence that day.
Students are asked to refrain from leaving the classroom until the end
of the session, except for a medical or similar emergency.
Academic
Integrity and Student Behavior:
Students
are expected to maintain the highest level of academic integrity. Academic dishonesty (papers and exams) will not be tolerated. Any student engaging in academic dishonesty
during this course may receive an immediate grade of “E” and could possibly be
referred to the administration for further disciplinary action.
Students
who are in any way disruptive in class (including carrying on unrelated
conversations during class, not paying attention, or being discourteous) should
expect to receive at least one whole letter grade less for the final grade
(e.g., A=B, D=E). If the professor
solely determines that the breach in conduct is severe, an automatic E will be
given for the final grade.
Cell
phones and pagers must be turned off while attending class.
Office Location and Hours:
Dr. Feldman’s office is located at B-4 Cooper Hall. Office hours are Tuesdays 4:30-6 PM and Thursdays 10:30 AM - 1 PM, or by appointment.