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One Starfish at a Time

The purpose of this article is to document how a course in the fundamentals of sociology encouraged students to rethink negative impressions about people with AIDS. Multimethod, active learning processes were utilized to introduce the sociological imagination, critical thinking, and theory and methods in sociology. The intent was to apply basic sociological knowledge to a real-world issue, HIV/AIDS in a global perspective. In the process of developing basic skills in sociology, a consistent change was noted in students’ self-reported impressions about people with AIDS in each of four semesters (N = 160). Catastrophic contagion characterized their impressions at the beginning of the semester; humanizing attributes (encouragement and empowerment) replaced catastrophic contagion at the end of the semester. Implications of these findings for teaching and learning, and deconstructing HIV/AIDS stigma, are discussed.