Language and HIV/AIDS

Dr Christina Higgins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she teaches courses in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and intercultural communication. Her recent research has focused on communication in NGO-sponsored HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness education in Tanzania, where she has investigated the discursive construction of local and global worldviews. In her book, English as a local language: Post-colonial identities and multilingual practices (Multilingual Matters), she has also explored the role of language and popular culture in HIV/AIDS awareness efforts in hip hop lyrics and in public health advertisements. Her website can be found at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~cmhiggin.Dr Bonny Norton is Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada.  Her award-winning research addresses identity and language learning, education and international development, and critical literacy. Her current research investigates the use of innovative technology to promote multilingual literacy in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent publications include Identity and Language Learning (Longman/Pearson, 2000); Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (Cambridge University Press, 2004, w. K. Toohey); and Gender and English Language Learners (TESOL, 2004, w. A. Pavlenko). Her website can be found at http://lerc.educ.ubc.ca/fac/norton/.

Christina Higgins and Bonny Norton have brought together a remarkably diverse group of scholars who focus on the intersection of language and HIV/AIDS. The result is a stunningly vibrant volume, one that brims with insights based on qualitative analyses of a variety of public and private discourses from around the globe. _Language and HIV/AIDS_ is an outstanding example of the power of applied linguistics to illuminate critical real-world issues. A true treasure!

• Introduction - Applied Linguistics, Local Knowledge, and HIV/AIDS - Christina Higgins and Bonny NortonChapter 1 Lengths of Life – Stories of Being with HIV - William SavageChapter 2 Ugandan Students’ Visual Representations of Health Literacies: A Focus on HIV/AIDS Knowledge - Harriet Mutonyi and Maureen E. KendrickChapter 3 Is It Safer to Talk about Sex in Spanish or English?: Performing Young Adulthood in Oaxaca, Mexico - Àngeles Clemente and Michael J. HigginsChapter 4 Safe Sex – Not So Straightforward: Intersubjective Positioning in Gay Men’s Accounts of Sexual Exposure to HIV - Henrike KörnerChapter 5 Dangerous Dogmas: AIDS, Discourse, and the Reality of the Rakhel System in India - Noushin KhushrushahiChapter 6 Discursive Constructions of Responsibility in HIV/AIDS Prevention: Investigating Re-entextualization Practices in Tanzania - Christina HigginsChapter 7 Uganda’s ABC Program on HIV/AIDS Prevention: A Discursive Site of Struggle - Shelley Jones and Bonny NortonChapter 8 Learning about AIDS Online: Identity and Expertise on a Gay Internet Forum - Rodney H. JonesChapter 9 Contextualizing Local Knowledge: Reformulation in HIV/AIDS Prevention in Burkina Faso - Martina DrescherChapter 10 What Difference Does This Make?: Studying Southern African Youth as Knowledge Producers within a New Literacy of HIV and AIDS - Claudia Mitchell, Jean Stuart, Naydene de Lange, Relebohile Moletsane, Thabisile Buthelezi, June Larkin, and Sarah FlickerChapter 11 Articulations of Knowing: NGOs and HIV-positive Health in India - Mark Finn and Srikant SarangiChapter 12 Signs Show the Way: Reading HIV Prevention on the Andaman Islands - Annabelle Mooney