GHCS 300R-000: Core Issues in Global Health: Global Responses to HIV / AIDS (Spring 2010)

Semester Details: This course will familiarize students with anthropological approaches to HIV/AIDS and introduces theoretical foundations for cultural analyses and responses to HIV/AIDS.  The course will give a selective overview of major movements and topics within the anthropology of HIV/AIDS, including global health disparities, the political economy of health, and social studies of science.  Course readings and discussion focus on topics such as contemporary biopolitics, the body, cultural and biomedical constructions of difference, interpretations of power/truth, rationalities of risk, and identity and subjectivity. At the end of the course, students should have a basic understanding of the importance of anthropological contributions to the study of HIV/AIDS, an appreciation of the critiques of the culture of medicine and medical science from the social sciences, and practical skills of critical thinking and self-expression to address issues of social difference and medical disparities.  The underlying purpose of the course is to develop students' awareness of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural complexity of HIV/AIDS in the United States and globally and the consequent need for anthropological involvement in the field of global health.