Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: J. Kathryn Josserand , Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 6, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 221 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Institute for Tropical Hygiene and Geographical Medicine, Dept. of the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam. / Summary in English, Dutch and Spanish. Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-245) and index.

Music therapy has been recognized as a legitimate health practice in Canada since after the Second World War. While research shows the emotional, social and health benefits of music therapy, researchers have failed to agree on the reason music can be beneficial to health. I argue that affect could be the key to understanding the myriad ways in which music, and music therapy, can have a positive effect on health. Through the lens of affect theory, I explore embodiment, relationship-building and aesthetic creation as three areas in which music can allow the harnessing of affect towards health goals. I note music’s powerful affect on the human body and movement, and the ways in which these affects are mobilized towards specific clinical goals. I explore the various human-to-human and human-to-sound relationships that are mobilized, created or strengthened through music therapy interventions, and how they relate to health and to the affect of “becoming”. Finally, I note the strong evidence for musical and aesthetic creation as a part of self-care, both by music therapists and by their clients, and argue for a broader understanding of how creativity impacts health, by allowing people to affect their environments and “become themselves”.

For more than thirty years, the HIV pandemic has caused immense harm across sub-Saharan Africa. From the middle of the last decade, however, a treatment revolution has been underway, as effective antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) have become available to millions of ordinary people. This thesis examines the far-reaching consequences of this new reality in Northern Nigeria. It argues that the significance of the ARV era cannot be fully understood simply by monitoring how many patients are receiving treatment, but instead must be explained in terms of the multifaceted changes it has driven in institutions and the lives of HIV positive people. This study uses ethnographic case studies and participatory methods to understand this new historical moment from ‘below’. It provides new empirical perspectives on how the ARV era has profoundly altered the ways in which HIV positive people suffer. The difficulties of daily life when subjected to opportunistic infections, side effects from drugs, and social stigma are compounded by memories of past trauma and fears for an uncertain future. Previous studies have indicated HIV positive people often form new relationships (e.g. Rhine, 2009), but rarely have these post-HIV relationships been described. This study argues that these new relationships, often distant from conventional family supervision, have a unique character, blending traditional forms with ‘modern’ ideas about romance. After a HIV disclosure, incomes and assets (particularly those reliant on family relationships) are often reduced. Along with the cost of treatment (broadly defined to include a range of curative practices), this forces those living with HIV to adapt their livelihood strategies, often using networks of solidarity between positive people. The process of lobbying for improvements in medical care is also explored. Both doctors and NGOs advocate on behalf of HIV positive people, but do so with strikingly different tactics and results. This has important implications for continuing debates about working ‘with the grain’ (Crook and Booth, 2011) for development in patrimonial states. In summary, whilst HIV treatment has saved the lives of millions, inventing drugs and getting them to the people who need them are merely the first steps in alleviating suffering. The thesis traces the most important tasks in securing wellbeing in the ARV era – those pursued by HIV positive people themselves.

The diagnosis and treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders has changed rapidly in the past century. Western medicine has produced diagnostic criteria, pharmaceuticals, and different therapies, increasing public awareness of these conditions. This research investigates the potential and perceived cultural, familial, and political influences on anxiety and depressive disorders in the current biomedical system; analyzes the effects of this system on the patients within it; and compares the causality, diagnosis, and treatment of these conditions cross-culturally. To accomplish these research goals, I conducted in-depth interviews with people affected by depression and anxiety in the Atlanta area. I will present my analysis of the interview data collected, focusing on the extent to which each participants' familial and cultural backgrounds and attitudes towards biomedicine affected their choices and experiences with treatment. I also explore the role of pharmaceutical advertising and marketing strategies in patients’ perceptions of their disorder and treatment options.

Stigma is multi-faceted and intersects with other damaging forms of social suffering. The evolving nature of HIV stigma is particularly evident in HIV communities, where community members adopt hegemonic views of biomedicine and incorporate them into their shared social space. I argue that such structural discrimination is a product of embracing “biomedical moralities,” where older community members adopt biomedically defined medical management as the standard of conduct. Such standards of living become so pervasive that HIV stigma nearly functions as a form of structural violence producing negative stereotypes of members who do not demonstrate “correct” ways of living with HIV. Such “biomedical moralities” lie at the nexus of community formation, contingent identities, and perceived stigma that members of HIV communities enact and embody. In this work I propose a newly identified stigma-linked syndemic which is thought to contribute to HIV spread, pose challenges for HIV medication adherence, and promote known syndemic interactions between HIV and other STIs. Through ethnographic research I present HIV communities’ experiences with stigma and how that can worsen overall health effects. I suggest that such research highlights needed improvements in anti-stigma campaigns and calls for an expansion of existing stigma-related HIV syndemics research.

The research outlined in this thesis explores the practice of providing humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced persons in Bangladesh. This aid, offered in a limited way by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) is similar to aid provided to refugees in many other parts of the world, however my research reflects the specificities of research in Bangladesh, the particular conditions of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar (Burma) and the practices of aid work in a Muslim-identified aid organization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of this kind of aid as a response to protracted refugee situations. Rohingya refugees, the recipients of this aid, fled to Bangladesh in successive waves beginning in the 1970s, leaving villages in Myanmar where they faced extreme levels of persecution, violence and discrimination. Although the government of Bangladesh initially welcomed the Rohingya, in subsequent years, the government has sought to return Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. Approximately 28,000 refugees remain in two camps run by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and another approximately 60,000 refugees (without official refugee status) live in camps run by INGOs. The bulk of my fieldwork was conducted conducted between June 2011 and September 2012 using participant observation, interviews and focus groups in one of these INGO-run camps. Other research on humanitarian aid tends to focus on either the practical challenges of aid work or the philosophical and ethical shortcomings of the system. In this thesis, I examine the day-to-day practices of aid workers, the challenges they face, the contributions they make and the conflicts that arise from their work. This dissertation argues that humanitarian intervention, as it is currently practiced in Bangladesh, while marked by inefficiencies, corruption and conflict, does improve the material lives of the refugees it seeks to assist. I also argue that humanitarian aid, as currently practiced, is fundamentally weakened by the premise that humanitarian crises are short term and by the shared understanding that host countries can set absurdly impossible restrictions on refugees and aid workers. One key contribution I make is to examine the experiences of expatriate aid workers, situating their work as migrant laborers who cope with precarity and the instability of humanitarian crises.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-237). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2005. / Supervisor: Aubrey Cannon. Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-328). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [245]-254).