Bronwen Lichtenstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 82699 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bronwen Lichtenstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bronwen |
| FAMILY NAME | Lichtenstein |
| SIGNATURE | LICHTENSTEIN B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alabama |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4840-8764 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 137 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Vulnerable boomers
This article examines the circumstances of 415 older homeowners in a Southern U.S. County who faced mortgage foreclosures between 2018 and 2022. Data sources included foreclosure notices, property records, debt judgments, marriage/divorce records, and obituaries from federal, state, and county records. These data were analyzed using Schatzki’s Life Course framework, which highlights how people move through various stages of life as shaped by inst…
Use what you have
In mid-2021, the CommuniVax Alabama team broadened their community engagement by partnering with the Chamber of Commerce, the Alabama Department of Public Health, and others to bring vaccines to the workplace. Through this collaboration, the team hoped to fortify the state's persistently anemic rate of vaccination. The goals of increasing access to, and convenience of COVID-19 vaccination were only partially achieved due to human resource and pol…
The Geography of Dispossession
Scant attention has been paid to the racial impacts of bankruptcy and foreclosure in the United States. This article examines the links between bankruptcy, housing loss, and "risk responsibilization," a neoliberal process in which consumers rather than lending institutions are held responsible for debt management. We used data sequencing, and Geographic Information Systems Mapping (GIS) to analyse 1,057 cases of home foreclosure and related bankr…
Women and divorce
Divorce is a life-changing event with financial implications for women. Although large-scale studies have examined the factors associated with financial coping after divorce, little attention has been paid to the lived experience of women over time. In this study, we used mixed methods to examine the financial well-being of divorced women over 20 years from 1996 to 2016. Using data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health [ALSWH],…
Covid-19 and the Cares Act
The 2020 CARES Act provided mortgage relief to financially distressed borrowers whose loans were insured by the U.S. government. We used cumulative disadvantage theory to examine the effects of mortgage relief in a Deep South County with a history of racial disparities in mortgage lending and homeownership. We collected property and open-access data for a five-year period (2016–2020) to compare pre-moratorium and in-moratorium trends in foreclosu…
From “Coffin Dodger” to “Boomer Remover”
Older adults have and will continue to bear the brunt of Covid-19 in terms of social burdens and body counts as the pandemic continues to affect people around the globe. The rhetoric of disposability underscores age discrimination on a broader scale, with blame toward an age cohort considered to have lived past its usefulness for society and to have enriched itself at the expense of future generations
Splitting the Marital Home
Divorce proceedings often involve splitting the marital home and contested claims over property and other assets. This case study examines the divorce–foreclosure nexus through key informant interviews, analysis of divorce files and foreclosure notices, and a review of court records on debt, remarriage, and criminal offending. We found that property disposition is a gendered process, with men receiving the marital home 1.7 times more often than w…
Cumulative Disadvantage or Beating the Odds? Racial Disparities in Home Foreclosure by Neighbourhood Composition in the American Deep South
The racial gap in U.S. homeownership has widened since the recession of 2007–2011, partly because of housing loss from foreclosure. This study uses cumulative disadvantage theory to analyse the racial dimensions of home foreclosure activity across neighbourhoods in a Southern county. The methods involved collecting and analysing 1013 foreclosures in a population almost evenly divided between white and black residents. After creating a foreclosure…
Ricky and Lucy
HIV disproportionately affects young Black men who have sex with men in the USA, with especially high rates in the Deep South. In this Alabama study, we interviewed 24 pairs of young Black men who have sex with men aged 19-24 and their close friends (n = 48) about sexual scripts, dating men and condom use. Three main themes emerged from the study: the power dynamics of 'top' and 'bottom' sexual positions for condom use; gender stereotyping in the…
Sharecropper's Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis Bacilli (TB) is a global scourge that affects poor people and regions. Drawing on Farmer's (2003) pathologies of power, and a case study approach, we examine the sociostructural landscape of a fatal outbreak of Sharecropper's TB among African Americans in rural Alabama. In a mixed-method qualitative approach involving oral history, surveys, interviews and documentary analysis, we identified three pathologies that contribute to TB sus…
Debt, death, and divorce
Older homeowners have faced financial pressures since the Great Recession of 2007–2011, including from mortgages that are carried into retirement. In order to chart the postrecession impact of housing loss among older homeowners at a granular level, I used municipal and archival sources to analyze 484 households involving 784 foreclosees in a racially defined county of the U.S. Deep South. Three major and related findings emerged from this explor…
Losing Ground
Medical debt is a persistent problem in the United States. This study examined the role of medical debt in relation to home foreclosure in a Deep South county with high rates of poverty, health disparities, and a racial gap in homeownership. Statistical analysis and geographic information systems mapping of municipal court records for 890 foreclosees indicated disproportionately high rates of medical debt among African Americans who lived in raci…
Mothers of Mass Murderers
The families of Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, and Adam Lanza have been blamed for raising sons who became school killers. The mothers, in particular, have been portrayed as failed parents because of their sons' actions. We applied Goffman's concept of courtesy (associated) stigma to analyze readers' responses on CBS and The Huffington News weblogs and to determine if the fathers, mothers, or both parents were singled out for blame. Content analysis…
HIV-Related Stigma Among Healthcare Providers in the Deep South
Building Back
On April 27, 2011, an EF–4 tornado struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Historic damage from the storm coincided with a recessionary economy, a double blow from which the city has yet to recover. This study applied disaster vulnerability theory to a mixed–methods analysis involving qualitative research, photography, and geographic information systems (GIS) analysis in order to document the recovery of three neighborhoods in the tornado zone. One measure o…
Living with HIV and ARVs
Women foreclosed
Women were a focus of subprime lending during the housing boom, increasing their risk of mortgage foreclosure during the Great Recession of 2007–2011. Following Valentine's (2007) call for a feminist geography on interactions between social categories and geographic patterns, this article investigates housing loss among women foreclosees in a southern US county with a history of residential segregation. We collected foreclosure data manually from…
Lessons on Stigma
Teaching about the sociology of HIV/AIDS involves teaching about the causes and effects of stigma. We describe a Sociology of HIV/AIDS course at the University of Alabama in which stigma reduction was assessed as a primary objective. The syllabus involved theory-based instruction, class visits, service learning, and student research on community attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. We report on how stigma affected the service learning and other elements of…
Social Stigma and Sexual Epidemics
Bronwen Lichtenstein draws on cases around the world to illustrate how sexual epidemics continue to be shaped by powerful forces of race, gender, and the lingering consequences of history. Illuminating the continuity of ideas and dynamics that affect both individual behavior and public health responses, Lichtenstein reveals a vicious interplay between the stigmas of social status and the prevalence of sexually transmitted infection (STI). She als…
Older African American Women and Barriers to Reporting Domestic Violence to Law Enforcement in the Rural Deep South
Victims of domestic violence are legally entitled to police protection, but multiple barriers exist in contacting law enforcement. In this study, we used Federal Bureau of Investigation data, key informant interviews, and focus groups to examine barriers to reporting domestic violence among older African American women in the rural Deep South. Three primary barriers were identified: gender roles, age dependency, and mistrust of law enforcement. T…
Partnership Concurrency Status and Condom Use Among Women Diagnosed with Trichomonas vaginalis
HIV risk among long‐haul truckers in the USA
Long-haul truck driving has been associated with HIV risk in developing countries but little research to date has considered whether truckers in the USA may also be at elevated risk for HIV and other STIs. This multi-method qualitative study explored HIV-risk factors among regional and cross-country truck drivers who were based in the southeastern USA. Data collection methods included focus groups conducted at company hubs and over Citizen's Band…
Exemplary Elders
The risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among older adults in the US has increased in recent years, especially in the southeast. Stigma is a known barrier to STI control, but is rarely addressed in relation to older adults because of assumptions about their lack of sexual activity or their low risk of STI. This study presents the results of a telephone survey on STI stigma among older adults in a southern US state using Bourdieu's conc…
Illicit Drug Use and the Social Context of HIV/Aids in Alabama's Black Belt
Context: The rural Black Belt of Alabama is among the poorest areas of the nation. Poverty, lack of health infrastructure, and health disparities involving HIV/AIDS and other diseases reflect the lower life expectancy of people in the region. The Black Belt region has the highest HIV rates in rural America. Purpose: Using Alabama as a case example, the paper describes the role of illicit drug use in pathways to HIV transmission in the Black Belt …
Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Communication Research
The field of communication supports a healthy literature based on both quantitative and qualitative methods. However, individual researchers commonly focus on using only one of these two techniques. The current paper promotes the use of multiple methods to investigate research questions and emphasizes the potential benefits of using quantitative and qualitative techniques interactively and interdependently. The general goals and procedures of eac…
From “Coffin Dodger” to “Boomer Remover”
Older adults have and will continue to bear the brunt of Covid-19 in terms of social burdens and body counts as the pandemic continues to affect people around the globe. The rhetoric of disposability underscores age discrimination on a broader scale, with blame toward an age cohort considered to have lived past its usefulness for society and to have enriched itself at the expense of future generations
Secret Encounters
Black men suffer the highest rates of HIV infection in Alabama. However, little is known about the HIV risks of this sector of the population, primarily because the current public health focus is on women and children. The dearth of research on HIV risk among black men in Alabama is addressed by drawing on focus group, elicitation, and key informant data from an ongoing epidemiologic study on AIDS in that state. These hypothesis-generating qualit…
Stigma as a barrier to treatment of sexually transmitted infection in the American deep south
Domestic violence, sexual ownership, and HIV risk in women in the American deep south
Women foreclosed
Women were a focus of subprime lending during the housing boom, increasing their risk of mortgage foreclosure during the Great Recession of 2007–2011. Following Valentine's (2007) call for a feminist geography on interactions between social categories and geographic patterns, this article investigates housing loss among women foreclosees in a southern US county with a history of residential segregation. We collected foreclosure data manually from…
Building Back
On April 27, 2011, an EF–4 tornado struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Historic damage from the storm coincided with a recessionary economy, a double blow from which the city has yet to recover. This study applied disaster vulnerability theory to a mixed–methods analysis involving qualitative research, photography, and geographic information systems (GIS) analysis in order to document the recovery of three neighborhoods in the tornado zone. One measure o…
Caught at the Clinic
The literature on gender and health typically addresses behavioral patterns when discussing men's attitudes to health. Few of these studies explore men's anxieties or presentations of self in relation to health problems, particularly for stigmatizing conditions such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Through direct observation and focus group interviews of health workers, clients, and students, this study explores African American men's a…
Mothers of Mass Murderers
The families of Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, and Adam Lanza have been blamed for raising sons who became school killers. The mothers, in particular, have been portrayed as failed parents because of their sons' actions. We applied Goffman's concept of courtesy (associated) stigma to analyze readers' responses on CBS and The Huffington News weblogs and to determine if the fathers, mothers, or both parents were singled out for blame. Content analysis…
Lessons on Stigma
Teaching about the sociology of HIV/AIDS involves teaching about the causes and effects of stigma. We describe a Sociology of HIV/AIDS course at the University of Alabama in which stigma reduction was assessed as a primary objective. The syllabus involved theory-based instruction, class visits, service learning, and student research on community attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. We report on how stigma affected the service learning and other elements of…
Use what you have
In mid-2021, the CommuniVax Alabama team broadened their community engagement by partnering with the Chamber of Commerce, the Alabama Department of Public Health, and others to bring vaccines to the workplace. Through this collaboration, the team hoped to fortify the state's persistently anemic rate of vaccination. The goals of increasing access to, and convenience of COVID-19 vaccination were only partially achieved due to human resource and pol…
Exemplary Elders
The risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among older adults in the US has increased in recent years, especially in the southeast. Stigma is a known barrier to STI control, but is rarely addressed in relation to older adults because of assumptions about their lack of sexual activity or their low risk of STI. This study presents the results of a telephone survey on STI stigma among older adults in a southern US state using Bourdieu's conc…
Living with HIV and ARVs
Andrea Yates and the Criminalization of the Filicidal Maternal Body
On March 12, 2002, Andrea Yates was found guilty of murder for drowning her five children. Media reports of the Yates trial indicate that she was judged according to the idealization of mothers as self-sacrificial and nurturing. This article uses the theory of the sociology of the body to analyze Yates’s crime in relation to mental illness, gender roles, and embodied motherhood. The authors present a brief history of the crime of filicide and dis…
Partner Notification Methods for African American Men Being Treated for Trichomoniasis
This pilot study sought information on African American men's preferences for partner notification methods for a common sexually transmitted infection called trichomoniasis. Two focus groups of African American men were convened at a public STI clinic where they were being treated for trichomoniasis. The groups identified a sexual hierarchy in men's preferences for methods of partner notification. The hierarchy consisted of main men (Cake Daddies…
Covid-19 and the Cares Act
The 2020 CARES Act provided mortgage relief to financially distressed borrowers whose loans were insured by the U.S. government. We used cumulative disadvantage theory to examine the effects of mortgage relief in a Deep South County with a history of racial disparities in mortgage lending and homeownership. We collected property and open-access data for a five-year period (2016–2020) to compare pre-moratorium and in-moratorium trends in foreclosu…
Cumulative Disadvantage or Beating the Odds? Racial Disparities in Home Foreclosure by Neighbourhood Composition in the American Deep South
The racial gap in U.S. homeownership has widened since the recession of 2007–2011, partly because of housing loss from foreclosure. This study uses cumulative disadvantage theory to analyse the racial dimensions of home foreclosure activity across neighbourhoods in a Southern county. The methods involved collecting and analysing 1013 foreclosures in a population almost evenly divided between white and black residents. After creating a foreclosure…
Sharecropper's Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis Bacilli (TB) is a global scourge that affects poor people and regions. Drawing on Farmer's (2003) pathologies of power, and a case study approach, we examine the sociostructural landscape of a fatal outbreak of Sharecropper's TB among African Americans in rural Alabama. In a mixed-method qualitative approach involving oral history, surveys, interviews and documentary analysis, we identified three pathologies that contribute to TB sus…
Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Communication Research
The field of communication supports a healthy literature based on both quantitative and qualitative methods. However, individual researchers commonly focus on using only one of these two techniques. The current paper promotes the use of multiple methods to investigate research questions and emphasizes the potential benefits of using quantitative and qualitative techniques interactively and interdependently. The general goals and procedures of eac…
Needle exchange programs
Needle exchange programs: New Zealand's experience. B LichtensteinCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.86.9.1319 Published Online: October 07, 2011
From Principle to Parsimony
Virginity Discourse in the Aids Era
Women's experiences of sexual initiation are explored in this article from a socio-cultural and gender perspective that examines the impact of popular discourse about virginity, romance, and marriage on female adolescent sexuality. It is argued that economic and cultural factors weigh heavily on a young women's ability to "be" a virgin, and that virginity discourse is laden with middle-class assumptions about self-empowerment and achievement. Dra…
Women, Families, and HIV/Aids
Secret Encounters
Black men suffer the highest rates of HIV infection in Alabama. However, little is known about the HIV risks of this sector of the population, primarily because the current public health focus is on women and children. The dearth of research on HIV risk among black men in Alabama is addressed by drawing on focus group, elicitation, and key informant data from an ongoing epidemiologic study on AIDS in that state. These hypothesis-generating qualit…
Stigma as a barrier to treatment of sexually transmitted infection in the American deep south
Giving Birth, Going Home
The US Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996 ('The Two-Day Law') mandates insurance coverage for women who have just given birth to remain in hospital for two days post-partum. However, many women are being discharged from hospital after 24 hours. To assess why early discharge is still occurring, a study of 406 new mothers was conducted at an urban metropolitan hospital in the USA. The women were aware of the new law (95%) but deci…
Caught at the Clinic
The literature on gender and health typically addresses behavioral patterns when discussing men's attitudes to health. Few of these studies explore men's anxieties or presentations of self in relation to health problems, particularly for stigmatizing conditions such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Through direct observation and focus group interviews of health workers, clients, and students, this study explores African American men's a…
Public tolerance, private pain
This pilot telephone survey sought to identify social barriers to treating sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in a socially conservative state (Alabama, USA). The sample consisted of 250 household residents aged 19-50 years, mostly African-American and White, who were drawn from the general population. The participants reported that infected persons, per se, should not be stigmatized. However, almost half of respondents stated that they would…
Domestic violence, sexual ownership, and HIV risk in women in the American deep south
Partner Notification Methods for African American Men Being Treated for Trichomoniasis
This pilot study sought information on African American men's preferences for partner notification methods for a common sexually transmitted infection called trichomoniasis. Two focus groups of African American men were convened at a public STI clinic where they were being treated for trichomoniasis. The groups identified a sexual hierarchy in men's preferences for methods of partner notification. The hierarchy consisted of main men (Cake Daddies…
Andrea Yates and the Criminalization of the Filicidal Maternal Body
On March 12, 2002, Andrea Yates was found guilty of murder for drowning her five children. Media reports of the Yates trial indicate that she was judged according to the idealization of mothers as self-sacrificial and nurturing. This article uses the theory of the sociology of the body to analyze Yates’s crime in relation to mental illness, gender roles, and embodied motherhood. The authors present a brief history of the crime of filicide and dis…
Illicit Drug Use and the Social Context of HIV/Aids in Alabama's Black Belt
Context: The rural Black Belt of Alabama is among the poorest areas of the nation. Poverty, lack of health infrastructure, and health disparities involving HIV/AIDS and other diseases reflect the lower life expectancy of people in the region. The Black Belt region has the highest HIV rates in rural America. Purpose: Using Alabama as a case example, the paper describes the role of illicit drug use in pathways to HIV transmission in the Black Belt …
Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Communication Research
The field of communication supports a healthy literature based on both quantitative and qualitative methods. However, individual researchers commonly focus on using only one of these two techniques. The current paper promotes the use of multiple methods to investigate research questions and emphasizes the potential benefits of using quantitative and qualitative techniques interactively and interdependently. The general goals and procedures of eac…
Partnership Concurrency Status and Condom Use Among Women Diagnosed with Trichomonas vaginalis
HIV risk among long‐haul truckers in the USA
Long-haul truck driving has been associated with HIV risk in developing countries but little research to date has considered whether truckers in the USA may also be at elevated risk for HIV and other STIs. This multi-method qualitative study explored HIV-risk factors among regional and cross-country truck drivers who were based in the southeastern USA. Data collection methods included focus groups conducted at company hubs and over Citizen's Band…
Exemplary Elders
The risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among older adults in the US has increased in recent years, especially in the southeast. Stigma is a known barrier to STI control, but is rarely addressed in relation to older adults because of assumptions about their lack of sexual activity or their low risk of STI. This study presents the results of a telephone survey on STI stigma among older adults in a southern US state using Bourdieu's conc…
Older African American Women and Barriers to Reporting Domestic Violence to Law Enforcement in the Rural Deep South
Victims of domestic violence are legally entitled to police protection, but multiple barriers exist in contacting law enforcement. In this study, we used Federal Bureau of Investigation data, key informant interviews, and focus groups to examine barriers to reporting domestic violence among older African American women in the rural Deep South. Three primary barriers were identified: gender roles, age dependency, and mistrust of law enforcement. T…
Social Stigma and Sexual Epidemics
Bronwen Lichtenstein draws on cases around the world to illustrate how sexual epidemics continue to be shaped by powerful forces of race, gender, and the lingering consequences of history. Illuminating the continuity of ideas and dynamics that affect both individual behavior and public health responses, Lichtenstein reveals a vicious interplay between the stigmas of social status and the prevalence of sexually transmitted infection (STI). She als…
Lessons on Stigma
Teaching about the sociology of HIV/AIDS involves teaching about the causes and effects of stigma. We describe a Sociology of HIV/AIDS course at the University of Alabama in which stigma reduction was assessed as a primary objective. The syllabus involved theory-based instruction, class visits, service learning, and student research on community attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. We report on how stigma affected the service learning and other elements of…
HIV-Related Stigma Among Healthcare Providers in the Deep South
Building Back
On April 27, 2011, an EF–4 tornado struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Historic damage from the storm coincided with a recessionary economy, a double blow from which the city has yet to recover. This study applied disaster vulnerability theory to a mixed–methods analysis involving qualitative research, photography, and geographic information systems (GIS) analysis in order to document the recovery of three neighborhoods in the tornado zone. One measure o…
Living with HIV and ARVs
Women foreclosed
Women were a focus of subprime lending during the housing boom, increasing their risk of mortgage foreclosure during the Great Recession of 2007–2011. Following Valentine's (2007) call for a feminist geography on interactions between social categories and geographic patterns, this article investigates housing loss among women foreclosees in a southern US county with a history of residential segregation. We collected foreclosure data manually from…
Losing Ground
Medical debt is a persistent problem in the United States. This study examined the role of medical debt in relation to home foreclosure in a Deep South county with high rates of poverty, health disparities, and a racial gap in homeownership. Statistical analysis and geographic information systems mapping of municipal court records for 890 foreclosees indicated disproportionately high rates of medical debt among African Americans who lived in raci…
Medicine (24 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Political science (17 works) · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (12 works) · Demography (12 works) · Economics (12 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Sex work and related issues (11 works) · Demography (10 works)