In January 2018 Kathy’s book Sex, Shame and Violence: A Revolutionary Practice of Storytelling in Poor Communities was selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2017. During 2017 Choice reviewed over 5,300 titles from which they selected 504 as outstanding Academic Titles. From those the editors chose their top 25 titles which included Kathy’s book. The book describes her gender-based model of HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual health education and how she integrated research and pedagogy.
One Reviewer said in part:
The book is simultaneously a strong argument for the central role of shame in people's lives, the power of stories told and retold to initiate behavior and relationship changes, and the importance of basing interventions on community-level norms. Several chapters also form a manual for ethnographic research for change and improved health. This is not a light read, but its depth, clear writing, and practicality make it essential reading for anyone with an interest in women's lives and relationships in contexts of vulnerability [1-18]
Kathleen Cash (Click for interesting methodology and pedagogy related to HIV/AIDS) is an independent researcher and educator interested in integrative methodologies that bring social change to economically and educationally disadvantaged women and youths.
Using ethnographic research methods, she collects stories people tell about themselves and their sexual experiences and transforms this research into composite stories that mirror the vulnerabilities and emotions expressed. She then creates picture books in which the composite stories are accompanied by culturally appropriate images and told in the vernacular. These are used by trained peer educators in a pedagogical process that incorporates storytelling, dialogue, and structured interactions. While a specific goal is to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS, a more general goal is to foster confidence in participants by improving communication in their public and private relationships.
"After my fellowship at Radcliffe, I spent three years conducting field tests on the Uganda project," she reported. "One test in Lira and the other in Pader, Uganda. Recently our Uganda program was awarded a grant from What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls, a UK DFID-funded program, to conduct a randomized control trial in Northern Uganda to evaluate the impact of my program." [7/16]
Kathy has received two Fulbright fellowships, a 1987 teaching fellowship at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, and a 2004 AIDS research fellowship in Uganda, where she looked at the relationship between sexual and domestic violence and the transmission of HIV/AIDS. [1/08]
Email: cashkathy@gmail.com