HIV, Gender and the Politics of Medicine

Embodied Democracy in the Global South

Elizabeth Mills (University of Sussex)

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English

Bristol University Press
10 June 2025

Development studies; Gender studies: women; Social & cultural anthropology; HIV & AIDS

Drawing on long-term ethnographic studies, this book centres on women who live with HIV in South Africa, Brazil and India and who have fought, through transnational activist networks, to access essential medicines through their country's public health system.

The book traces the path of the individual to the national and transnational to demonstrate the political and embodied ramifications of policies governing AIDs medicine on individual lives. Founded on two decades of ethnographic research, including participant observation, participatory photography and film and journey mapping, the book shows the ways in which HIV-positive women have acted on national and global policies in their efforts to access necessary medication and treatments. By tracing this important struggle, the book reveals the lessons that were learned by the activists and policy makers who were engaged in shaping these vital policies.

By: Elizabeth Mills (University of Sussex)
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781529221947
ISBN 10: 1529221943
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 10 June 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Elizabeth Mills is Senior Lecturer in International Development at the University of Sussex.

Reviews for HIV, Gender and the Politics of Medicine: Embodied Democracy in the Global South

“Mills successfully moves from local communities of South Africa and Brazil to the pharmaceutical industries in India and back again. The ethnographic detail in this book is exquisite. A must-read.” Pamela Downe, University of Saskatchewan “In this richly expansive account, Mills … illustrates how viruses, communities, governments and corporations have competed in a complex, sometimes deadly, politics of bodily care.” Lenore Manderson, University of the Witwatersrand “In this tour de force, Mills shows how biopolitical precarity has shifted as new generation struggles emerge over HIV treatment and the conditions of inequality in which women live.” Susan Reynolds Whyte, Editor, Second Chances: Surviving AIDS in Uganda