Thank you!

The 1st International HIV Social Science and Humanities Conference – Locating the Social – was held from 11-13th June in Durban, South Africa.   The conference was co-chaired by: Mary Crewe from the Centre for the Study of AIDS at Pretoria University, South Africa; Susan Kippax from the Social Policy Research Centre, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; and Marsha Rosengarten from the Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom.  The three co-chairs were supported by a committee of eminent social scientists who are active in HIV-related research.

Over 370 delegates, both young and old, from around the world, from a range of social science and humanities disciplines, attended the conference and over 150 delegates presented papers, in oral presentation sessions, pre-organised symposia or panels, or round tables, as well as a number presenting posters.   The conference had four plenary speakers: Dr Fred Eboko, a political scientist and  Senior Research Fellow at the French Institute of Development, who presented a paper on From Intimacy to Politics; Professor Ezekiel Kalipeni, a professor of Geography and African Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who presented a paper on The Gender Context of Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS; and Dr Vinh-Kim Nguyen, an HIV physician and medical anthropologist at Montreal Jewish Hospital, who presented a paper entitled Locating Theory: HIV, Social change and Anthropology on behalf of himself and Professor Anita Hardon, professor of Health and Social Care at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (Sociology / Anthropology Department) and Dean of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research at the University of Amsterdam.

It was an historic occasion on which, for the first time, social science and humanities scholars gathered at an international conference focused on critical, theoretically-informed social science and humanities research on HIV.  Participants discussed a range of issues in relation to HIV including: conceptualising the field; integrating social and biomedical science; social approaches to biomedical prevention; creative approaches to research and intervention; the moral contexts of HIV risk; criminalisation and the law; homophobia and HIV in sub-Saharan Africa; social aspects of social networks and of sexual and drug injection networks; HIV in public and private; gender relations, social structure and HIV; subjectivity and identity; masculinities and HIV; HIV policy and governance; policy and social change; as well as a number of sessions devoted to HIV prevention and to treatment and care. As in all conferences, small numbers of delegates grouped together to plan new research collaborations.

The conference had two goals; to provide a venue for social scientists and humanities scholars to share their work across disciplines (which heretofore had not existed) and explore the relationship between social science and biomedicine.  Comments from delegates suggest that these goals were met: people spoke of the intellectual challenges of the conference: some said it was “life changing”, others agreed that it was “energising”, some others that it “provided a safe space where we can talk to each other”, while one other that it was “a rewarding and stimulating event... I am so glad I travelled so far to listen to so many compelling presentations”, and so on. It had a great feel and generated many ideas and much discussion.  We look forward to the second such conference in 2013. (Click here for the call for proposal to host the 2013 conference. Applications close 31 January 2012).

The plenary presentations of the 2011 conference are available here as are the contacts of all participants.

Mary Crewe
Susan Kippax
Marsha Rosengarten
September 21, 2011