Afterlives of AIDS: Oral Histories of Black Women living and aging with HIV

Scope and Contents

The collection documents the relations between health care policy and practices and the lived experiences of older Black women living and aging with HIV in the Washington, DC region. It contains twelve oral history interviews, associated transcripts, portraits of the interviewees, and measures 1.36 GB. The interviews were conducted between 2018-2019 by Thurka Sangaramoorthy, PhD, MPH, as part of her oral history project. Portraits were taken by Aamir Khuller.

Biographical

Thurka Sangaramoorthy is a cultural and medical anthropologist and public health researcher with 22 years of experience in conducting community-engaged ethnographic research, including rapid assessments, among vulnerable populations in the United States, Africa, and Latin America/Caribbean. Her work is broadly concerned with power and subjectivity in global economies of care. She has worked at this intersection on diverse topics, including global health and migration, HIV/STD, and environmental disparities. She is the author of two books: (Routledge, 2020) and (Rutgers, 2014). Dr. Sangaramoorthy is Co-Chair of the American Anthropological Association's Members Programmatic Advisory and Advocacy Committee and a Board member of the Society for Medical Anthropology; she serves as Associate Editor of Public Health Reports and Editorial Board Member of American Anthropologist. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco in 2008, her MPH from Columbia University in 2002, and is currently Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maryland.

Historical

The interviews and portraits in this collection are part of an ongoing project to document how HIV has shaped Black women's lives and how it has impacted their historical and contemporary roles within Black familial systems and broader communities. Furthermore, the life histories provide a window into the childhood, family, friendship, school, and work experiences of an overlooked group from the local and national discourse on the impact of HIV in American society.

The long-term aim of the project is to present holistic and complex stories of African American women who have long been ignored in the history of HIV and to elevate racial justice in HIV advocacy by educating the public on racial health disparities.