This is My face: Re-signifying HIV stigma through participatory visual methods

"This is My face: Re-signifying HIV stigma through participatory visual methods" explores how people create meaning of the "biographical disruption" caused by an HIV diagnosis, within a context that limits opportunities for sense-making. When confronted with "existential uncertainty", sharing narratives with others becomes a crucial strategy to understand and create meaning. Although in the UK there is strong advocacy to end HIV stigma, in other countries like Chile, stigma is reinforced; which prevents people from sharing experiences with others.
My project explores the possibilities of pioneering visual methods as a way to facilitate the narratives of people living with HIV in contexts where their expression is limited. As part of this PDF, I will produce a series of outcomes around HIV narratives, looking at collaborating with a wide range of audiences, and consolidating my PhD work extensively.
First, I will produce a visual monograph (based on my unpublished PhD photo-book) which will weave autobiographical photos and texts created by people living with HIV in Chile as part of my PhD. This monograph will highlight the need of narratives for sense-making and expand existing knowledge on the intersections of visual and medical anthropology. There is no academic text dealing with HIV stigma in Latin America through visual participatory methods. The monograph will be pioneering in this specific field, and will target a wide audience including academics, HIV organisations, and relevant stakeholders. It will be pitched to publishers such as Routledge who can reach with and beyond academia, and later to Verso and Pittsburg.
By producing a multimedia website to disseminate research findings, I will create a platform for collaboration between people living with HIV, scholars, and relevant stakeholders. I will mobilise my existing networks to contribute to the website's visibility and content: Global Fund Partnership Forum, UNAIDS, academic research groups, HIV organisations in Chile and the UK, among others.
I will co-organise two workshops: one in Chile with Association for the Wellbeing of People Living with HIV, and one in the UK with UNAIDS Fast-Track city in Brighton. The workshops will expand public engagement and promote knowledge exchange, while strengthening local approaches to promote HIV sense-making at national and international levels. I have collaborated extensively with these organisations, and they are keen to co-design the events and welcome a wide range of stakeholders to further influence policy.
By producing two journal articles and presenting at world-leading conferences, I will disseminate findings related to my pioneering method, contributing to discussions around methodological approaches to HIV, and offering opportunities for further analysis on HIV narratives.
Through the collaboration with the UN Fast-Track City Project for HIV prevention in Brighton, I will produce an important site for knowledge transfer and impact of my work. Additionally-considering the wide work on Medical and Visual Anthropology at Sussex and Goldsmiths-we will lay ground for a multi-sited research grant bid about experiences of illness through participatory methods, bringing together researchers from the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Technologies and Health (CORTH), Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth (CIRCY) and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS).
This project is timely and urgent (see Case for Support), and by connecting a wide range of audiences, I will extend the impact of my public engagement work, expand on knowledge transfer, and lay ground for academic continuity and further research collaborations. Sussex will be the perfect environment to enrich these outcomes, by collaborating with Dr. Paul Boyce and Prof. Day and with other colleagues at Sussex and Goldsmiths who are producing research in the same field, and/or with similar interdisciplinary and ethical considerations.