"According to Nepalese government records, Nepal's first HIV case was identified in 1988. The number of reported HIV cases peaked during the civil war (1996-2006), but since then, the Himalayan nation has taken steps to steadily reduce the number of new HIV infections. Nepalese society is still, however, plagued by the broader social and cultural stigma that has accompanied HIV/AIDS cases. Using participant-observation research and interviews, conducted in the clinical setting of the maternity and Women’s Disease Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, from December 2016 to February 2017, this project examines the perspectives of healthcare providers and patients, with a focus on HIV pregnant women. As a result, this work not only provides insight into the relational dynamics of interactions between HIV patients and the staff, but also explores the gendered dynamics of HIV/AIDS treatment in terms of ideas about women and femininity, including the limits and possibilities for agency that women face in contemporary Nepal.
In addition to my written thesis, I made eight keystone relief prints informed by my fieldwork, and wrote eight poems to accompany them, through the medium of wood-block relief-printmaking, a medium with which I have been engaged for the past three years. Each print is accompanied by a poem, which I presented in an audio-visual installation at COA’s Blum gallery. The installation offered a multi-media presentation of what I learned during my research. I hope to present a version of the installation also in Nepal."
Below are some prints I made and a poem I wrote as part of my senior project.
Visual art director: Catherine Clinger
Senior project director: Netta van Vliet
II.
"We were little
when we are taught
to always hold
both our hands together
in front of elders out of respect.
But they held their hands.
Every time
and called me didi.
I corrected them
but it did not matter.
I was not older.
Neither by age nor by position.
But they still held their hands
'Why?' I once asked.
'Because you are giving us life,
can't you see?' (Manandhar: ??)"
After graduation:
"After COA, I got my MSPH in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and am currently in the doctorate program at the same school where I specialize in vaccine-preventable infectious diseases epidemiology, and labour, delivery, and postpartum care in low-resource settings." (2022)
-Porcia Manandhar-
