Melissa Meyer

Professor Pieter Fourie

Successive South African governments have had controversial views on HIV and AIDS which have led to allegations that South Africa is in a state of denial about the AIDS epidemic. This book attempts to determine the validity of such claims of government denial by formulating and testing a denial hypothesis.The hypothesis is contextualized with an overview of the South African epidemic as well as a review of allegations of government denial. It reveals possible political factors that may motivate policy-makers to resort to official denial and tentatively concludes with a confirmation of the allegations contained in the denial hypothesis. However, this is done within the broader notion that denial is inherently vague and couched in language (rarely in writing) and therefore difficult to test with certainty and as such this book's real value lies in the insights gained into the complex politics of denial. By exploring the dynamics of denial and denialism and applying this to the South African AIDS epidemic, this study provides a comprehensive analysis.

South Africa's Failure to Respond

The Politics of AIDS Denialism

Recent Work

Paintings and Drawings, 1980-1984

Lyle Rexer

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture

Wiegand Art Gallery

Works on Paper, 1984-1994

Melissa Meyer in Black & White

New Work, March 31-May 7, 2016

May 6-31, 1986

Helen Struthers

Between 2009 and 2011, journalism fellows of the HIV & AIDS Media Project undertook in-depth research looking to write about men, masculinity, and HIV in a new way, and the result is this compendium of articles, blogs, and photo essays. It showcases a diversity of men, each facing a unique context and dealing with sexual health and relationships differently. The book is structured around four central themes—men as lovers, men as partners and fathers, men who have sex with men, and men’s relationship to traditional and medical male circumcision—and brings men’s varied roles in the HIV epidemic to the fore.

Rewriting Masculinity and Health in South Africa

(Un)covering Men

Blood is more than a fluid solution of cells, platelets and plasma. It is a symbol for the most basic of human concerns--life, death and family find expression in rituals surrounding everything from menstruation to human sacrifice. Comprehensive in its scope and provocative in its argument, this book examines beliefs and rituals concerning blood in a range of regional and religious contexts throughout human history. Meyer reveals the origins of a wide range of blood rituals, from the earliest surviving human symbolism of fertility and the hunt, to the Jewish bris, and the clitoridectomies given to young girls in parts of Africa. The book also explores how cultural practices influence gene selection and makes a connection with the natural sciences by exploring how color perception influences the human proclivity to create blood symbols and rituals.

The Origins of Blood as Symbol and Ritual

Thicker Than Water

Melissa Meyer

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