Viral Frictions

"Through engaging storytelling and careful analysis, Viral Frictions examines the persistence of stigma surrounding AIDS in Kenya. Tracing the intersection of multiple axes of inequality and illuminating the complicity of global actors, Elizabeth Pfeiffer provides a new and insightful perspective on an enduring problem. Further, her rich ethnography takes a Rift Valley 'truck stop'—stereotypically reduced to a risk site—and reveals a vibrant community."

~Daniel Jordan Smith, author of AIDS Doesn’t Show Its Face: Inequality, Morality, and Social Change in Nigeria

“An exquisite ethnography of the complex social frictions arising from decades of HIV interventions, and more recent efforts to 'end AIDS,' in Kenya. Deftly interweaving history, theory, and ethnographic stories, Viral Frictions offers a humane and carefully wrought reminder that HIV stigma persists in social relations even as the virus becomes increasingly 'undetectable' in bodies due to biomedical treatment.”

~Nora Kenworthy, author of Mistreated: The Political Consequences of the Fight Against AIDS in Lesotho