Phone: (401) 863-6183
Office: Cabinet 305-4
email: Abigail_Harrison@brown.eduTitle: Assistant Professor (Research), PSTC
Background
Abigail Harrison joined the PSTC at Brown University in 2004 as a Visiting Research Associate, and served as an NIH-funded post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine, Brown University Medical School during 2005-06. Dr. Harrison is also an affiliate of the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the International Health Institute at Brown. She received her PhD (2004) in Epidemiology and Population Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. Harrison also holds both an MPH and an MA in International Development from Johns Hopkins University.
Research Interests
- Social and contextual determinants of HIV/AIDS in southern Africa, particularly interrelationships between sociocultural and demographic processes related to gender, non-marital unions and family formation
- Adolescent sexuality and risk behaviors in the context of HIV/AIDS, including behavioral intervention research
- Reproductive health and behaviors, especially contraception and pregnancy in high HIV prevalence settings
- Integration of qualitative and quantitative methods; ethnographic research
Current Research
Dr. Harrison’s current research focuses on three main areas. First, she is engaged in analysis of ethnographic data from her long-term project on “Adolescents through the Lifecourse in Rural South Africa”. Second, she is pursuing research on the interrelationships between non-marital unions, fertility and HIV risks among young adult women in South Africa and Lesotho (in collaboration with Professor Susan Short). Third, she serves as co-investigator on studies of young people’s knowledge and attitudes toward HIV prevention and treatment in South Africa. Dr Harrison collaborates with a number of South African institutions, including the University of KwaZulu Natal, the Reproductive Health Research Unit, and the South African Medical Research Council. In support of this research, she has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (co-investigator), the World Health Organization, and the Wellcome Trust, UK.
Selected Publications:
Mantell J, Harrison A, Hoffman S, Smit J, Stein ZA, Smit J. The Mpondombili Project: Preventing HIV/AIDS and Unintended Pregnancy among Rural South African School-going Youth. Reproductive Health Matters 2006; 14(28): 113-122.
Harrison A, Hoffman S, O’Sullivan LF, Mantell J, Exner T, Smit J. Young Men’s HIV Risks in South Africa: the Importance of Multiple Risk Behaviors. AIDS 2006; 20(10): 1467-68.
Harrison A, O’Sullivan LF, Hoffman S, Dolezal C, Morrell R. Gender Role and Relationship Norms in Young Adult Relationships in South Africa: Measuring the Context of Masculinity and HIV Risk. J Urban Health 2006; 83(4).
O’Sullivan LF, Harrison A, Morrell R, Monroe-Wise A. Gender Dynamics in the Primary Sexual Relationships of Young Rural South Africans. Culture, Health and Sexuality 2006; 8(2): 99-113.
Hoffman S, O’Sullivan L, Harrison A, Dolezal C, Monroe-Wise A. HIV Risk Behaviors and the Context of Sexual Coercion in Young Adults’ Sexual Interactions: Results from a Diary Study in Rural South Africa. Sexually Transmitted Diseases 2006; 33(1): 52-58.
Harrison A, Cleland J, Gouws E, Frohlich J. Early Sexual Debut among Young Men in Rural South Africa: Heightened Vulnerability to Sexual Risk? Sex Trans Infections 2005; 81: 259-261.
Harrison A. The social dynamics of adolescent risk for HIV: Using research findings to design a school-based intervention. Agenda 2002; 53: 43-52.
Harrison A, Montgomery E. Life histories, reproductive histories: rural South African women’s narratives of fertility, reproductive health and illness. Journal of Southern African Studies 2001; 27(2): 311-328.
Harrison A, Xaba, N, Kunene P. Understanding safe sex: gender narratives of HIV and pregnancy prevention by rural South African school-going youth. Repro Health Matters 2001; 9(17): 63-71.
Harrison A, Xaba, N, Kunene P, Ntuli N. Young women’s risk for HIV/AIDS: adolescent sexuality and vulnerability in rural KwaZulu/Natal. Society in Transition 2001; 32(1): 69-78.
