Dissertation Research: Narratives of Living with HIV: Accountability, Community and the Transformation of Suffering

这个项目将通过人们的叙述 和生活史，艾滋病患者如何解释 他们的状况与促进应对的因素有关， 寻求社会支持和开始自我治疗。 所审查的口译的主要方面包括 问责（解释感染的原因， 一个人是否应该为此负责）和社区的构建 （将自己与其他HIV+个体联系起来）。 印第安纳波利斯的社会和政治保守主义和缺席 一个政治上强大的同性恋社区的存在， 同性恋恐惧症和与艾滋病有关的耻辱，使其更加 艾滋病患者的典型经历 传染病的中心 这项研究将有助于 文化人类学通过展示话语如何联系 拥有强大制度领域的个人。 它将 为美国民族志做出了贡献， 使用社区的“消极”和“积极”方面， 构建身份。 最后，它将有助于艾滋病 研究和医学界通过连接“的方式， 谈论”艾滋病毒感染以及 和它一起生活

This project will investigate, through people's narratives and life histories, how AIDS patients' interpretations of their condition relates to factors facilitating coping, such as seeking social support and initiating self-treatment. Key aspects of interpretation examined include accountability (explaining the cause of infections and whether one is to blame for it) and constructs of community (relating one's self to other HIV+ individuals). Indianapolis' social and political conservatism and absence of a politically powerful gay community heighten the homophobia and stigma associated with AIDS, making it more typical of experiences of AIDS patients outside the epidemic's epicenters. This study will contribute to cultural anthropology by demonstrating how discourses link individuals with powerful institutional domains. It will contribute to American ethnography by exploring how people use "negative" and "positive" aspects of community in constructing identities. Lastly, it will contribute to AIDS research and the medical community by connecting "ways of speaking" about HIV infection and strategies and choices for living with it.