HIV/AIDS is one of the most pressing development issues in the world today. This course examines the cultural, political, economic, and other social factors that contribute to its transmission and intractability, and which help to explain the differential impact of the disease upon societies worldwide. Particular attention is paid to the ways that specific social/sexual identities and practices arising from inequitable class, gender, race, and ethnic relations, affect the prevalence of HIV, the ability to contain its spread, and the human costs that it entails.