Sociology 196 – The HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Global and Local Perspectives
Course Focus
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has drastically altered the global social, political, economic and demographic landscape. Delivering education concerning the virus, expanding prevention programs, monitoring the needs of countries and communities affected by HIV and AIDS, making treatment accessible and providing care for individuals infected with HIV or living with AIDS continues to challenge the capacities of families, communities, countries and international organizations. In this course we examine the pandemic as both a global and local phenomenon. Our discussions will be theoretically framed within the central concepts of globalization, social inequality, stigma and economic development. While based with a socio-demographic tradition, this course draws on literatures from many disciplines to highlight the general contours, continuing debates, and ethical challenges related to the pandemic.
As an introductory course, we will share strategies to enhance core academic skills focusing on effective approaches to college level reading, note taking strategies and formal writing skills. By the end of the term we should all be better informed about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, familiar with some basic social science theories and possess an expanded tool box of academic skills.
The substantive goals for the course are:
- To enhance our understanding of how HIV is transmitted, how it develops into AIDS, and how prevention programs and drug treatments have been used to decrease the transmission of HIV and hinder the development of HIV into AIDS.
- To gain familiarity with the past and current global trends of the pandemic and their links to
globalization and development. - To move past individual bio-medical approaches to HIV risk, to include social, cultural and economic issues of importance, highlighting issues of social stigma.
- To critically access responses to the pandemic, globally, in the United States, and in Illinois.
More information at https://courses.illinois.edu/schedule/2015/fall/SOC/196