Denielle A Elliott

DENIELLE ELLIOTT, York University, Toronto, Canada was awarded a grant in April 2017 to aid research on ‘Neurological Imaginaries: An Ethnography of Cerebral Suffering and Brain Trauma.’ Funding supported ethnographic research on pharmaceuticals and experimental medicine in Kisumu, Kenya. The project was an ethnographic study of an AIDS prevention clinical trial in Kisumu and rural Nyanza — specifically a multi-sited experimental trial exploring the effectiveness and safety of preexposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention in East Africa. The grantee carried out over 12 months of participant observation in East Africa and interviewed staff, researchers, and international scientists involved in AIDS prevention research. This project explored the relationships between space, place, governmentality and questions of scientific evidence in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in western Kenya. Her work asked — How does science and scientific practice disrupt, alter, employ and constitute landscapes, territories, localities, and public spaces? How are AIDS prevention science and development ordered spatially? The research focused on state-sponsored and state-funded projects, rather than ‘Big Pharma’ industry trials, and raises important questions about the relationships between states, international politics, humanitarian interventions and medicine. Bridging postcolonial studies, critical geography and cultural anthropology the work contributes to analyses of power in scientific practice. The findings from the project may contribute to the development of more equitable North-South collaborations in scientific and medical research.