Center for Social Research

Explanations for Church Mobilization against AIDS in Africa

Despite local, national, and global attention to AIDS in Africa, an estimated 1.4 million Africans died of the disease in 2008, the same number as in 2001. As central institutions in many African societies, churches have responded to AIDS in various ways, from ignoring the disease, to providing care for the sick, to demanding state responses.

Using data from news articles and interviews with AIDS activists, church leaders, AIDS policymakers, and donor officials in Zambia, Kenya, the United States, and Ghana conducted between 2007 and 2010, Professor Amy Patterson, Political Science, presents an analysis of these church AIDS activities in Africa. She argues that church organizational structures, pastoral leadership, and the opportunities provided by globalization and the continent’s presumed “dependence” on the West shape African church mobilization on AIDS.

Please join CSR for Dr. Patterson's presentation and the ensuing discussion.

Thursday October 7, 2010 3:30 p.m., Meeter Center Lecture Hall Calvin College Refreshments provided