Understanding gender, sexuality and HIV risk in HEIs: narratives of international post-graduate students
Abstract
Thirty years into the HIV&AIDS pandemic, the world is still striving to reduce new
HIV infections and halve AIDS related deaths by 2015. However, sub-Saharan Africa
still faces the burden of HIV infections as governments and private institutions try out
different prevention strategies (UNAIDS 2011). Several scholars have argued that
multiple concurrent sexual partnerships (MCSP) pose the greatest risk for new HIV
infections. Furthermore, research has also linked MCSPs to mobility and migration.
This paper draws from the project ‘Sexual identities and HIV&AIDS: an exploration of
international university students’ experiences” which employed memory work, photo-voice,
drawings and focus group discussions with ten (5male and 5female) Post Graduate
international students at a South African university. Focussing on the data produced
through memory work, I present university students’ lived-experience narratives of
mobility and migration in relation to how they perceive MCSPs and HIV risk. The
findings show how students construct their gendered and sexual identities in a foreign
context and how these constructions intersect with their choices of sexual relationships
and HIV risk. I argue from the findings that Higher Education Institutions should be
treated as high risk ‘spaces of vulnerability’ and hence health support services and HIV
intervention programming policies should be geared towards addressing such
vulnerabilities in order to create sustainable teaching and learning environments that
allow for all students to explore their full capabilities.