HIV storytelling

May 5, 2006

On my afternoon coffee break (yeah, so I’m a regular mocha drinker these days), I picked up a copy of the nicely done student magazine Carolina Passport (unfortunately, the website for the mag seems to be MIA). Glad to see this celebration of international studies and travels by UNC students.

Erin, as it happens, received a Foreign Language Area Studies grant last month; she’s the first Carolina law student to receive the grant, and she’ll use it to study Swahili and health law in Tanzania.

In Carolina Passport, I noticed a stunning photo essay by JOMC grad student Nathan Clendenin. Seems Nathan did his thesis reporting project on AIDS, poverty and faith in a South Africa township called Mamelodi. He’s documented his project at HIVstories.org, a multimedia presentation (you’ll need the Flash 8 plugin). Though I was happy to see that—since one of my main efforts while in grad school just a couple of years ago was the Narratives of HIV series of events—I was a bit baffled why no one at JOMC remembered the series and thought to connect me with Clendenin.

You know, I own the domain narrativesofhiv.org. Someday, I hope I can collaborate with people like Clendenin and Melody Jenkins and Jon Rawlinson to use domain to tell the stories. Maybe when Erin takes us to Africa, I can do just that.

Anton Zuiker ☄