HIV Insights: Through Their Own Eyes
27 June 2011
AUCKLAND After a highly successful session with international HIV expert Dr Charles Farthing, The New Zealand AIDS
Foundation (NZAF) INSIGHTS public seminar series returns with its next installment. Dr Jason Myers (NZAF Policy Analyst)
will be sharing the stories of gay men living with HIV in Auckland as explored through his multimethod PhD research.
Jason graduated from the University of Auckland and started working at the NZAF in September 2010 after completing a
Research Fellowship at University College London. He has presented his research at many international conferences and
has published in a number of academic journals and edited books.
In this presentation, Jason outlines Photovoice as a method and presents photographs and stories shared by the
participants in his research. Through the lens of Social Geography, he maps the different ways in which gay men who are
living with HIV renegotiate various spaces in their lives.
Playing with the idea of ‘movement’, he explores not only the physical relocations that are experienced but also the
emotional transitions which accompany those moves. Research of this nature offers voice to the often marginalised
experiences of gay men living with HIV and can add nuanced layers of depth to our understanding of life with HIV.
Who: Dr Jason Myers
When: 6.00 –7.30pm, Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Where: New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF) National Office
Meeting Room 2, Floor 2
31 Hargreaves Street
St Mary’s Bay
Auckland 1011
Onstreet parking is available near the NZAF building.
About Photovoice
Photovoice is a methodology which combines photography with grassroots social action. Participants are asked to
represent their community or point of view by taking photographs, discussing them together, developing narratives to go
with their photos, and conducting outreach or other action. It is often used among marginalised people, and is intended
to give insight into how they conceptualize their circumstances and their hopes for the future. As a form of community
consultation, photovoice attempts to bring the perspectives of those "who lead lives that are different from those
traditionally in control of the means for imaging the world" into the policymaking process.
About the NZAF
The NZAF is New Zealand’s national HIV prevention and healthcare organisation. The NZAF provides positive health
services to anyone affected by HIV and HIV prevention programmes to the communities most at risk, as well as research,
analysis and policy leadership.
ENDS