Doctoral Dissertation Research: Positive Living and Antiretroviral Therapy: Marriage, Divorce and the Life Course of HIV-Infected Women in Northern Nigeria

研究生凯瑟琳·a·莱茵（Kathryn A. Rhine）将在丹尼尔·j·史密斯（Daniel J. Smith）博士的指导下，调查尼日利亚北部讲豪萨语的穆斯林妇女的婚姻轨迹，重点关注参加抗逆转录病毒治疗项目的妇女。随着艾滋病毒从致命疾病转变为慢性疾病，感染艾滋病毒的妇女的人生轨迹不仅暴露了她们的个人抱负和她们面临的社会和结构限制，而且暴露了社会生活中最被视为理所当然的方面。在撒哈拉以南非洲采用抗逆转录病毒疗法正在改变艾滋病毒/艾滋病的流行。虽然在尼日利亚等贫穷国家，艾滋病毒长期以来被视为死刑判决，但获得补贴和免费的抗逆转录病毒药物使成千上万的艾滋病毒感染者能够暂时过上没有症状或几乎没有症状的不确定生活。与这种疾病共存的前景给她们带来了新的挑战，特别是在应对围绕婚姻和生育的强烈个人愿望和文化期望方面。研究人员将使用标准的人种学方法和创新的病例对照抽样框架。她将在住宅环境中进行参与性观察，汇编生活史案例研究，并对接受抗逆转录病毒药物治疗的艾滋病毒阳性离婚妇女和丧偶妇女以及未感染或血清状态未知的离婚妇女和丧偶妇女进行一系列半结构化访谈。这项研究将有助于培养女性社会科学家。它还将进一步了解艾滋病毒与婚姻、婚姻解除和生育等人口过程之间的复杂联系，并将有助于预防和治疗艾滋病毒/艾滋病的公共卫生工作。

Graduate student Kathryn A. Rhine, under the supervision of Dr. Daniel J. Smith, will investigate the marital trajectories of Muslim Hausa-speaking women in northern Nigeria, focusing on women who are enrolled in an ARV treatment program. As HIV transitions from a fatal to a chronic condition, HIV-infected women forge life courses that reveal not only their individual ambitions and the social and structural constraints they face, but also the most taken-for-granted dimensions of social life.The introduction of antiretroviral therapies (ARVs) in sub-Saharan Africa is transforming the HIV/AIDS epidemic. While HIV has long been considered a death sentence in poor countries like Nigeria, access to subsidized and free ARVs is enabling thousands of persons with HIV to live a temporally uncertain period of life without or with few symptoms. The prospect of living with the disease poses new challenges for them, particularly in navigating the powerful personal aspirations and cultural expectations surrounding marriage and reproduction. The researcher will use both standard ethnographic methods and an innovative case-control sampling framework. She will do participant observation within a residential setting, compile life history case studies, and carry out a series of semi-structured interviews with both divorced and widowed HIV-positive women who are recipients of ARVs and a matched sample of uninfected or sero-status unknown divorced and widowed women. This research will contribute to the education of a female social scientist. It also will further understanding of the complex association between HIV and the demographic processes of marriage, marital dissolutions, and fertility, and will be of use to public health efforts applied toward the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.