Description
Book SynopsisViral Frictions takes the reader along a trail of intersecting narratives to uncover how and why it is that HIV-related stigma persists in the age of treatment. Pfeiffer convincingly argues that stigma is a socially constructed process co-produced at the nexus of local, national, and global relationships and storytelling about and practices associated with HIV. Based on a decade of fieldwork in one highway trading center in Kenya,
Viral Frictions offers compelling stories of stigma and discrimination as a lens for understanding broader social processes, the complexities of globalization and health, and their profound impact on the everyday social lives and relationships of people living through the ongoing HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. This highly engaging book is ideal reading for those interested in teaching and learning about intersectionality, as Pfeiffer meticulously demonstrates how HIV stigma interacts with issues of treatment, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, social change, and international aid systems.
Trade Review"Through engaging storytelling and careful analysis,
Viral Frictions examines the persistence of stigma surrounding AIDS in Kenya. Tracing the intersection of multiple axes of inequality and illuminating the complicity of global actors, Elizabeth Pfeiffer provides a new and insightful perspective on an enduring problem. Further, her rich ethnography takes a Rift Valley 'truck stop'—stereotypically reduced to a risk site—and reveals a vibrant community." -- Daniel Jordan Smith * author of AIDS Doesn’t Show Its Face: Inequality, Morality, and Social Change in Nigeria *
“An exquisite ethnography of the complex social frictions arising from decades of HIV interventions, and more recent efforts to 'end AIDS,' in Kenya. Deftly interweaving history, theory, and ethnographic stories,
Viral Frictions offers a humane and carefully wrought reminder that HIV stigma persists in social relations even as the virus becomes increasingly 'undetectable' in bodies due to biomedical treatment.” -- Nora Kenworthy * author of Mistreated: The Political Consequences of the Fight Against AIDS in Lesotho *
"Through engaging storytelling and careful analysis,
Viral Frictions examines the persistence of stigma surrounding AIDS in Kenya. Tracing the intersection of multiple axes of inequality and illuminating the complicity of global actors, Elizabeth Pfeiffer provides a new and insightful perspective on an enduring problem. Further, her rich ethnography takes a Rift Valley 'truck stop'—stereotypically reduced to a risk site—and reveals a vibrant community." -- Daniel Jordan Smith * author of AIDS Doesn’t Show Its Face: Inequality, Morality, and Social Change in Nigeria *
“An exquisite ethnography of the complex social frictions arising from decades of HIV interventions, and more recent efforts to 'end AIDS,' in Kenya. Deftly interweaving history, theory, and ethnographic stories,
Viral Frictions offers a humane and carefully wrought reminder that HIV stigma persists in social relations even as the virus becomes increasingly 'undetectable' in bodies due to biomedical treatment.” -- Nora Kenworthy * author of Mistreated: The Political Consequences of the Fight Against AIDS in Lesotho *
Table of ContentsSeries Foreword by Lenore Manderson
Preface
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Uneven Anthropological and Epidemiological Stories in Historical HIV Context
2 “The Postelection Violence Has Brought Shame on Us All”: HIV and Legacies of Racism, Political Violence, and Ethnic Conflict
3 Stigma and the Cultural Politics of Uncertainty
4 “We Call HIV a Sex Worker Disease”: Economic Inequalities, Social Change, and the Politics of Gender and Sexuality
5 (Re)Imagining Stigma at the Intersection of HIV and Mental Health Statuses
6 “What Has Happened to You?” HIV and the (Re)Making of Moral Personhood
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
