How do women living with genital herpes and/or HPV (human papillomavirus) infections see themselves as sexual beings, and what choices do they make about sexual health issues? Adina Nack, a medical sociologist who specializes in sexual health and social psychology, conducted in-depth interviews with 43 women about their identities and sexuality with regard to chronic illness. The result is a fascinating book about an issue that affects millions around the world, but is all too little discussed. "Damaged Goods?" adds to our knowledge of how women are affected by living with chronic STDs and reveals the stages of their sexual self-transformation. From the anxiety of being diagnosed with an STD to issues of blame and shame, Nack - herself diagnosed with a cervical HPV infection - shows why these women, feeling that they are "damaged goods," question future relationships, marriage, and their ability to have healthy children.
Adina Nack, Ph.D. has been researching and writing about health, sexuality and stigma since 1994: starting as an outreach educator for Girls, Inc. of Orange County, CA and continuing through her doctoral work at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Author of the book Damaged Goods? Women Living with Incurable STDs, Nack has also published articles and essays on topics including STD stigma, sex education, and HIV/AIDS. Her academic articles have been reprinted in over a dozen anthologies, and she has won awards for her research, teaching, activism, and public policy work.
As a medical sociologist, sex educator, and sexual health researcher, Nack has been seen and heard in MTV documentaries, CBS's The Doctors, local and regional newspapers and magazines, and interviewed on a variety of radio programs, including NPR and FOX News Radio shows. She gives talks and workshops to a variety of audiences: e.g., college students, national academic associations, and national youth pastor conferences. Always focused on how academic research can inform real-life solutions to social problems, she addresses a range of topics - including how to have better sex in a world with STDs, the personal and public health implications of mixing morality with medicine, HPV vaccines, pop culture, and youth culture.
In the past, Dr. Nack has directed the University of Colorado's Sexual Health Education Program, been a professor at the University of Maine, and served as a reviewer for top academic journals and the National Science Foundation. Currently she is a tenured Associate Professor of Sociology at California Lutheran University, where she was the founding Director of their Center for Equality and Justice. The lead organizer of Ventura County, CA's annual World AIDS Day events, Nack lives in Thousand Oaks, CA with her daughter and husband. Visit her online at www.adinanack.com.
