Centers

Principal Investigator: Richard Parker
Co-Principal Investigator: Miguel Muñoz-Laboy
Sub-Study Principal Investigator: Patrick Wilson
Grant Supported by NICHD

After two decades of mostly individual-behavior based research on HIV/AIDS, a new understanding has begun to emerge of the social and cultural factors that structure vulnerability to HIV infection and shape the possibilities for prevention and treatment. Although they have received little research attention, religious organizations have been central to the response of HIV/AIDS.

This study seeks to:

• Develop a comparative analysis of the ways in which Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, and Afro-Brazilian religions have responded (at the policy, institutional, and population levels) to HIV/AIDS in Brazil;
• Empirically document the importance that each religious tradition has given to HIV/AIDS, and the reasons for doing so;
• Assess, through a series of case studies, the ways in which the responses of each has interacted with local communities, civil society, and the nation-state in impacting the broader response to AIDS; and,
• Use comparative analysis to better understand the ways in which importance and impact have been influenced by the belief system of each tradition, their organizational and institutional structures, and their interactions with communities, civil society, and the state in order to shape broader social and political responses to AIDS.

The project employs both qualitative and quantitative methodologies carried out over five years, including archival research, surveys, participant observation, oral histories, in-depth interviews, life history interviews, and case-studies in five study sites to chronicle the dynamic trajectory of the multifaceted role that religious organizations play in the Brazilian response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This study also includes a sub-study to the main grant focusing on “Religion, Sexuality, and Responses to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic among African-American and Afro-Caribbean Men who Have Sex with Men.” This sub-study examines the role of men who have sex with men in shaping responses to HIV in different religious institutions in New York City. It explores the different types of responses that Catholic and Baptist religious institutions have had to the HIV epidemic in New York City, and examines barriers and facilitators to effective prevention and intervention efforts targeting MSM.