Sociology Department Colloquium: Sanyu Mojola

Date
Thu February 18th 2021, 12:30pm
Location
ZOOM
Sociology Department Colloquium: Sanyu Mojola

Please join us for a colloquium being given by Sanyu Mojola, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

A Nowadays Disease": HIV/AIDS and Social Change in Rural South Africa

Why do some people adapt successfully to change while others do not? The study examines this question in the context of a severe HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa, where adapting (or not) to social change has borne life and death consequences. Applying an age-period-cohort lens to the analysis of qualitative life history interviews among middle-aged and older adults, the paper considers the role of the life course and gendered sexuality in informing Africans’ strategies of action, or inaction, and in differentially driving and stalling change in each cohort in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The study illuminates the unique challenges of adapting to social change that result from dynamic interactions among aging, prevailing social structures, and a cohort’s socio-historical orientation to a new period.