After two decades of mostly individual-behavior based research on HIV/AIDS, a new understanding has begun to emerge of the social and cultural factors that structure vulnerability to HIV infection and shape the possibilities for prevention and treatment. Although they have received little research attention, religious organizations have been central to the response of HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic.

The proposed study seeks to: 1) Develop a comparative analysis of the ways in which Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, and Afro-Brazilian religions have responded (at the policy, institutional and population levels) to HIV/AIDS in Brazil; 2) Empirically document the importance that each religious tradition has given to HIV/AIDS, and the reasons fro doing so; 3) Assess, through a series of case studies, the ways in which the responses of each has interacted with local communities, civil society, and the nation- state, in impacting the broader response to AIDS; and, 4) Use comparative analysis to better understand the ways in which importance and impact have been influenced by the belief system of each tradition, their organizational and institutional structures, and their interactions with communities, civil society, and the state, in order to shape broader social and political responses to AIDS.

The project will employ both qualitative and quantitative methodologies over five years, including archival research, surveys, participant observation, oral histories, in-depth interviews, life history interviews and case-studies in five study sites, to chronicle the dynamic trajectory of the multifaceted role that religious organizations play in the Brazilian response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.