'Politics, policies and ethics of AIDS/HIV: Past and present' witness seminar/conference to held on 24 and 25 November 2009 at Warwick University (360G-Wellcome-091175_Z_10_Z)

The overarching objective of this interdisciplinary 2-day witness seminar/conference is to approach the history of AIDS/HIV from two different but intrinsically related methodological directions. Its goal is to comprehend, contextualise, reconstruct and convey the multifarious stories of this pandemic of the recent past and present. The witness seminar, a specialized form of oral history, brings together individuals whose long-term involvement in the fight against AIDS/HIV ranges across different national and international settings. It will offer space for participants to remember, discuss, debate, and even disagree about how AIDS/HIV shaped (and shapes) individual, institutional, national and international politics, policies and ethics. We will explore professional aspects of their work, as well as the reasons for their personal commitment. The seminar is also designed as a training-ground for future historians of medicine. A group of selected students, trained specifically in oral history by Prof Tilli Tansey, will interview and videotape the participants. · Building on the witness seminar, the one-day conference will unite its participants with international scholars working on the representations of AIDS/HIV arising from statistical data, archival, visual and literary materials. The conference objective is twofold: firstly, we will identify different forms of political engagement and health activism. Secondly, we will trace how and why these forms changed over time.