Articles
Seminars and Workshops
This list comprises the seminars and workshops hosted by the Centre - presented by visting and local scholars as well as by emerging researchers. It also includes events hosted by collegial departments and organisations relating to HIV in context.
Forthcoming seminar
To be scheduled.
Previous seminars
11 June 2013
Irregular migration, human trafficking and HIV and AIDS in South Africa
Dr. Joshua O. Aransiola (CRHA, School of Public Health, UWC)
The relationship between migration and health is becoming an area of interest to researchers across the globe. In many countries, however, irregular migration, including human trafficking, has been treated purely as a criminal issue to the neglect of its health dimensions. This study explored NGO and government agency perspectives on the challenges confronting irregular migrants to access treatment and care for HIV in South Africa - and the difficulties involved in curbing trafficking in human beings as one of the ways of addressing HIV. This seminar reflected on a recent qualitative study of the perception of different stakeholders working in the area of human trafficking and HIV and AIDS in selected communities in South Africa. Its aim was to understand the challenges and strategies that could be employed to improve access to care for migrants generally and the efforts needed to combat irregular migration, especially human trafficking, in the country.
Joshua Aransiola, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for Research in HIV and AIDS obtained a B.Sc, M.Sc and PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He started his career in 2000 as a lecturer and researcher in the same department. His research interests includes women and children's rights, sexual and reproductive health and HIV and AIDS.
20 August 2012
'Fix the Patent Laws' Campaign
- Catherine Tomlinson (Treatment Action Campaign)
South Africa provides greater protection regarding intellectual property than is required internationally. Because of this, medicines off-patent in other parts of the world often remain on-patent and extremely expensive in South Africa. The high cost of medicines under patent can block access to medicine for patients in urgent need. Given their high price, patented medicines are often not provided through the public sector or fully covered in the private sector.
Catherine Tomlinson explained how amending South Africa’s patent law would help to reduce the cost of medicines. She also discussed the ongoing pressure faced by South Africa and other developing countries to strengthen intellectual property protection and how the Treatment Action Campaign and Medicins Sans Frontieres were fighting back in the joint campaign to 'FIX THE PATENT LAWS'. More information on the campaign can be found at www.fixthepatentlaws.org
Catherine Tomlinson is the Senior Researcher for the Treatment Action Campaign where she has worked for four years in TAC’s Policy, Communication and Research Department. Catherine is particularly interested in intellectual property and medicine access and is currently working on TAC’s campaign to amend the Patents Act 57 of 1978.
1 August 2012
Human resources, health and HIV: Do districts know who’s doing what, and where? A case study of an urban and rural district in the public health sector monitoring Human Resources for Health using human resource information
- Verona Mathews (School of Public Health, UWC)
Accurate and valid human resource information is required at all levels within the public health sector for informed planning, management, and decision-making on Human Resources for Health for all health programmes, especially HIV/AIDS. There is a need to systematically analyse trends, develop perspectives, define response strategies and develop a coherent plan to address the wide spectrum of issues that impact on the production, retention and distribution of Human Resources in the public health sector. The seminar reflected on a project using an action research approach in implementing a district-based Human Resource Information System in two districts in the public health sector. The approach adopted a framework using a monitoring system consisting of a small set of indicators to strengthen workforce management and the planning capacity of human resource planners and managers. The seminar focused on the processes undertaken in the two districts through describing how their structure and other factors influenced the feasibility and successful implementation of a district-based Human Resource Information System.
Verona Mathews is a lecturer at the School of Public Health and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Public Health. Initially she worked for several years on developing and implementing the Health Information System in South Africa but her focus and passion has always been in developing district-based information systems using a bottom-up approach. For the last seven years she has focussed her activities on human resource management and developing, building capacity and using human resource information for the monitoring and management of the public health workforce.
28 June 2012
Perceptions of HIV and AIDS-related stigma among employees in the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa
- Mr Buyile BASHE (Organisational Wellness Manager, Parliament of South Africa)
The threat that HIV/AIDS poses to most institutions, including the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, can potentially be decreased by reducing stigma and discrimination. Parliament’s policy on HIV and AIDS provides protection for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) against stigma and discrimination.
This seminar reflected on a recent qualitative study of employee perceptions of HIV/AIDS stigma and of the effectiveness of existing programmes in Parliament in order to inform improved anti-stigma strategies and interventions in Parliament as well as other workplace settings.
Buyile Bashe, Organisational Wellness Manager at Parliament, graduated from UCT with a B. Nursing degree in 1998. In 2004 he completed a Management Programme at the University of Stellenbosch Business School followed in 2012 by an MPH at the School of Public Health, UWC. Buyile started his career as a Professional Nurse at the Vanguard Community Health Centre in the City of Tygerber - and in 2000 as a Senior Occupational Health Nurse Practitioner at Eskom: Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. He has been an Organisational Wellness Manager at Parliament from 2007, where he is responsible for the health and wellbeing of Members of Parliament and employees.
14 October 2011
Economics and HIV: Costs and consequences
- Prof Alan Whiteside (HEARD, UKZN)
21 September 2011
Gender equality, reproductive rights and public health: Reflections on research, politics and practice
- Prof Marleen Temmerman (University of Ghent, and the International Centre for Reproductive Health)
12 September 2011
Patterns of adherence
– Dr Fiona Larkan (Centre for Global Health, Trinity College, Dublin)
Interdisciplinarity and the massification of ART
- Dr Saris (NUI Maynooth)
Dr Fiona Larkan is Assistant Professor and course director for the MSc in Global Health at the Centre for Global Health, Trinity College Dublin. Her work concentrates on the inter-related areas of behaviour, risk and health and she has spent many years working with hard-to-reach populations – drug-users, sex workers, and those not accessing health and welfare services. Having lived and worked between South Africa and Ireland for over 25 years, Dr Larkan has a special interest in structural violence and the socio-cultural aspects of HIV and AIDS. She currently heads up a research project which seeks to understand barriers to access to ARV treatment for HIV and AIDS in South Africa’s Western Cape Province – a project which is funded by the Irish Health Research Board, Irish Aid and supported by the Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium.
Dr Saris is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, NUI Maynooth. He holds advanced degrees in Social-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago (MA and PhD), and he has completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinically-Relevant Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (1992-1994). He has been working for more than fifteen years in medical and psychological anthropology in Ireland, North America, and South Africa, where he has researched and published on such diverse issues as the social life of mental hospitals, the experience of major mental illness, colonialism and its aftermath, poverty and structural violence, drug abuse, and HIV risk and treatment.
14 April 2011
Everyone has a story: Writing your way through HIV (Interactive workshop)
- Dr Allan Peterkin (Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto)
1 March 2011
The problem with HIV prevention experts is that we have too much sex in mind
- Dr David Harrison (CEO, DG Murray Trust)
Discussant: Prof Tania Vergnani ( Director, HIV/AIDS Programme, UWC)
16 February 2011
African migrants living with HIV in London: Patterns of difference
- Prof Lesley Doyal (Prof of Health and Social Care, University of Bristol)
Lesley Doyal is Professor of Health and Social Care at the University of Bristol. She has published extensively on gender, health and health care and acts as a consultant on these issues to a wide range of organisations including the WHO, the UN and the Global Forum for Health Research. Her recent books include 'What Makes Women Sick: Gender and the political economy of health' (Macmillan) and 'Women and Health Services: An agenda for change'(Open University Press).
19 January 2011
Interrupted education: A public health risk for migrant youth
- Prof Sally Guttmacher (Public Health Program, New York University)
What happens to young people who have migrated to South Africa from Zimbabwe?
Prof Sally Guttmacher presented preliminary findings from research exploring the migration and post-migration histories of Zimbabwean youth in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Interrupted education and lack of access to school and health services compound experiences of political and structural violence in Zimbabwe, sexual violence during migration, and unsupportive social environments, dramatically increasing public health and HIV risks of youth. Many migrants report coming to South Africa to continue their education, which has been interrupted in Zimbabwe, yet find themselves unable to access schools in South Africa. What can be done?
Writing retreats
In April and August 2012, the Centre hosted two three-day writing retreats held in the Stellenbosch mountains to allow 20 researchers and academics time to write, either alone or collaboratively. Participants worked on PhD theses, journal articles, policy briefs, conference reports and chapters for books, all related to addressing “HIV in context” and strengthening human capacity to address HIV in public health and systems perspectives. The writing retreats are offered in the first instance to Centre Associates – researchers, students and government or civil society partners working on projects linked to the Centre. As space permits, additional participants working on related themes are invited to join. All participants apply in advance, describing a specific writing project and the objectives for the retreat, and submit a brief reflection afterwards to help shape future retreats and deepen our collective understanding of the rhythms of writing for publication.