Charting the Paradigm Shifts in HIV Research: The Contribution of Gender and Religion Studies

Our central aim in this lead-in piece is to chart the ways in which particular epistemological frameworks within the study of gender and religion serve to interrogate and challenge the systems of knowledge that exist in the HIV pandemic in the African and global contexts. We argue that the epistemological frameworks that gender and religion studies generate have caused significant paradigm shifts within HIV knowledge production both on the popular and academic level. These shifts have been so profound that HIV studies that do not take these areas of study seriously can and should have their credibility questioned.

We wish to demonstrate our central argument by reflecting on a decade of experience in researching and teaching in the area of HIV, gender, and religion in Africa. These experiences are found in a selected number of program, research projects, and initiatives that relate to or emanate from the work of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (the Circle). These are, inter alia, Yale’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA); the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA), and a bilateral project between the Universities of Oslo and KwaZulu-Natal called “Broken Women, Healing Traditions: Indigenous Resources for Gender Critique and Social Transformation in the Context of HIV & AIDS” (the Broken Women project).

While the studies have been done in Africa, the impact is global.

Forging Partnerships in HIV Research

The Circle

Although the Circle was established in 1989 with the aim of promoting research, writing, and publishing from the experiences of African women in religion and culture, it was not until thirteen years later in 2002 at its third Pan-African Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that the Circle started to seriously grapple with the issue of HIV and AIDS. This commitment to engage in research on HIV and AIDS was born out of the realization that African women as a group are disproportionately affected by the virus and therefore had to contribute to the knowledge production in this area not only to achieve the long-term effect of prevention but also to inject the critical gendered perspective of religion and culture into the knowledge that was being generated. Therefore, through the theme “Sex, Stigma, and HIV and AIDS: African Women Challenging Religion, Culture and Social Practices” African women theologians began to reflect on the role played by sacred texts, faith communities, and African culture in both the spread and prevention of HIV as it affects African women.¹

CIRA and the Faith Fellows Project

The Circle did not work on its own but formed partnerships with strategic collaborators. One example of such a partnership in generating knowledge about the gendered nature of HIV and its links with faith communities was the partnership between the Circle and Yale University Divinity School through a project entitled Gender, Faith, and Responses to HIV and AIDS in Africa, under the leadership of the late Letty Russell and Margaret Farley. This project was a collaboration with Yale School of Public Health and CIRA under the leadership of Kari Hartwig. A postdoctoral program was established to afford African women theologians an opportunity for empirical research on improving awareness and effectiveness of faith-based organizations related to HIV prevention. The project was a success in that twelve Circle members spent from four to nine months at Yale University as “faith fellows” to prepare for empirical research that deals with Gender, Faith, and HIV and AIDS.

Ehaia

A second partnership of note in the Circle’s history of researching HIV, gender and religion also goes back to 2003 when the Circle formed a partnership with the World Council of Churches’ EHAIA.² The most significant research output from the partnership of the Circle and EHAIA is Compassionate Circles: African Women Theologians Facing HIV,³ as it indicates where the gaps are in the Circle research and writing in the area of gender, faith, and HIV and AIDS in Africa. In this way, future Circle researchers were challenged to broaden their research. One of these areas of...