Public Secrets and Private Sufferings in the South African AIDS Epidemic

Jonathan Stadler is Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Johannesburg. An anthropologist with almost 20 years of research experience in rural and urban southern Africa, his research interests are epidemics and syndemics, social suffering, sexuality, biotechnologies, clinical trials, and the application of anthropological methods in medical research. Stadler has pursued these themes over the past two decades in several linked long term ethnographic studies in rural (Bushbuckridge) and urban settings (Mombasa, Orange Farm, Soweto, inner-city Johannesburg). He has worked on five large-scale international clinical trials for HIV prevention, and several smaller studies, of innovative biotechnologies. He is co-author of Negotiating Pharmaceutical Uncertainty: Women’s Agency in a South African HIV Prevention Trial (2017 Vanderbilt University Press) and Off-Label: AIDS Review 2012 (Centre for the Study of AIDS, University of Pretoria), and more than 40 peer reviewed articles.

• Chapter 1. Ending AIDS: An “Epidemic of ARVs”.- Chapter 2. Culture and Difference: From Medical Mission to HIV Prevention.- Chapter 3. Truth and Harm: Dangerous Knowledge and Popular Epidemiologies of HIV.- Chapter 4. Intentional Infections: Public Discourses of HIV Spread.- Chapter 5. Revenge and Remembering: Idioms and Accusations of Witchcraft and AIDS.- Chapter 6. Hope and Loss: Illness Narratives from the Margins.- Chapter 7. Death and Dying: Narrating the End of Life.- Chapter 8. Conclusions.

“In his brilliant and timely contribution, Public Secrets and Private Sufferings in the South African AIDS Epidemic, Jonathan Stadler proves that medical anthropology has a unique ability to dig below, to challenge and complicate the powerful yet often homogenising discourses of public health and biomedical science. … This book is highly recommended … . Public health scholars and practitioners, students of development studies, policymakers and anyone interested in understanding our complex country will find this a valuable and engaging read.” (Andrew Hartnack, Anthropology Southern Africa, May 6, 2022)