Dr. Kimberly Walters turned to her class apologetically.
“I know I promised I would return your graded papers today, but I had a personal deadline for an article.”
A few students released a slight groan.
“I will have them next week!” she said, determination in her eyes.
She’s on a mission. But it’s not only to grade papers.
Walters, an assistant professor for international studies at Cal State Long Beach, leaves her heart 8,711 miles away.
When she isn’t reading essays, she dedicates her time to research, writing articles and books, and HIV and anti-trafficking prevention projects in Hyderabad, India.
She was rooted to the capital of southern India’s Telangana state after marrying and residing there for nearly five years. She not only fell in love with her Hyderabadi husband, Krishna, but with the city’s vibrant culture.
There, she commenced her most recent campaign for HIV prevention this summer: “PrEP 4 India.”
PrEP, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, is a new medication that is over 90 percent effective in preventing HIV infection if taken on a daily basis, according to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Compared to the United States, the Indian government doesn’t introduce PrEP to doctors because there’s a fear that it will make people less fearful of sex and encourage intercourse.
“I was stunned that people were denying this technology that could help them deal with the fears and problems of HIV,” Walters said.
So, she started the website: www.prep4india.com. She stayed in Hyderabad for two months to start the campaign with CSULB student Marisela Lopez and several doctors from the U.S. and India.
“Working with Dr. Walters is a very exciting opportunity for me,” said Lopez, who serves as the research assistant for PrEP 4 India. “This project is planting the seed of ideas on how those at risk can protect themselves.”
Many Community Based Organizations and National Government Organizations have been the primary points of outreach in India for HIV. They focus on moralizing the use of condoms.
Walters sees PrEP as a more effective HIV prevention method.
She refrained from most organizations’ face-to-face intervention method and looked to social media and apps to increase outreach.
“I wanted to circumvent [these organizations] and go directly to people who needed it,” Walters said.
PrEP 4 India advertisements are placed on two social networking sources in Hyderabad: Facebook and Grindr.
By clicking an ad, consumers can choose to be connected with a doctor to find if a PrEP prescription is right for them.
So far, 65 people have contacted them and 22 are on the PrEP pill. But, the advertisements have been viewed by thousands.
“Knowing that people know about their options is a very rewarding and exciting feeling,” Lopez said.
Walters’ team hopes to reach a larger audience by expanding the campaign from English to Telugu and Urdu — languages spoken in India.
Walters met her colleagues from her previous involvement with female sex workers and anti-trafficking.
“I had a terrible summer,” said Walters, looking down.
A female friend of Walters, Sarah*, was living in India as a sex worker when she was diagnosed with HIV.
Sarah* was picked up by an anti-trafficking organization* and placed in a rehabilitation center, where her was held for six months without sufficient nutrition or medication.
When Walters arrived in Hyderabad, she found out Sarah* was sick and immediately scheduled to visit her.
Unfortunately, Walters attended her funeral instead. Sarah* died the day before their meeting.
“It made me that much more furious about the anti-trafficking work done in the name of ‘charity’ and ‘rescue,’” Walters said.
She clarified that anti-trafficking organizations have positive intentions, but, sometimes, their methods do more harm than good.
Walters’ background in social science and fluency in Telugu helped her collect data for an HIV prevention program in India.
A year later she went back to Hyderabad to study the process of HIV prevention intervening in women’s lives.
She wrote an article called “The Stickiness of Sex Work” published in “Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.” It reflects how selling sex changes a woman’s desires, way of being, and interactions with family.
Now, Walters applies her research to CSULB as co-chair of the Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative on campus.
“She is really an expert in her field,” said Barbara Grossman-Thompson, assistant professor for International Studies at CSULB and co-chair of the Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative. “I learn a lot [from her] even as another scholar just because she’s so well versed in the various debates in her studies.”
But, her heart and work will always be rooted in Hyderabad – in part, because of her family.
“I really miss the networks of love and support that exist there that are much more tenuous here,” said Walters. “I feel like my kids grew up socially impoverished here.”
Walters wishes she raised her children in India.
“I robbed them of the good life in some ways,” she said, sighing.
After Walters lived in Hyderabad for four and a half years, she returned to the Long Beach to become a professor.
In 2009, she was to be able to take her 10-year-old daughter Nandini and her 12-year-old son Rohan to Hyderabad for the first time.
Walters was filled with joy to connect her children to their roots. Their names mean “little girl who gives joy” and “ascending” in relation to stars, respectively.
“She’s an incredible person,” said Grossman-Thompson. “I have never seen a colleague that did not get a birthday card [from her]. Somehow she learned everybody’s name and birthday within her first week [at CSULB].”
Not only as a professor, but also as a person she is generous with her time and scholarship, said Grossman-Thompson.
Walters had to delay grading papers to meet the deadline for writing an article for India’s “Economic and Political Weekly.” She dives into the violence of anti-trafficking rescues and miscalculated methods for rehabilitation.
“Students probably imagine us [professors] to be slow with the work we do,” said Walters, laughing. “‘You only have three classes, right?’ they say.”
When Walters announced the postponed grades, third-year student Cameryn McNabb shrugged.
“I can barely grasp how knowledgeable she is,” said McNabb. “When students bring up events in other countries, she rarely doesn’t have an answer.”
Professors in the International Studies department at CSULB spend a majority of their time researching.
“It makes us better teachers because we are actually critically engaged with the theoretical questions we are applying to students,” said Walters.
She hopes to have a solid draft of a new book in the next year. She also wants to continue to drop the rate of HIV infections in India. So she is working to expand PrEP 4 India by targeting underprivileged people.
So the next time a professor doesn’t update the grades, it may just be because they are saving the world.