To explore the landscape of collections and archives holding HIV-related records and how they have been used for research or in creative practices, on 2 and 3 December, The National Archives will host two events – an online symposium and a digital humanities workshop – bringing together archivists, scholars, researchers, and creative practitioners.
The National Archives holds an extensive collection of material related to the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. This includes cabinet papers and records documenting the government response, public health campaigns and scientific research, and records connected with the many intersections between the government and governmental bodies and the spread and effects of the virus (in blog posts, The AIDS health campaign and HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQ+ community).
The National Archives’ records tell a limited story of the spread of HIV in the UK. As official documents of the state, they rarely convey anything of the lived experiences and emotions of people who lived with or in proximity to the virus. Such histories are often preserved elsewhere, by voluntary groups and in community archives. Though they offer different takes on historical facts, both are necessary and valuable.
The workshop
An in-person digital humanities workshop on 2 December will be open to a limited number of people (selected through an expression of interest process) and will be focused on the ‘1987 AIDS Advertising Evaluation Dataset’, an openly accessible dataset produced at the time of the 1987 Public Health Campaign.
Attendees will learn how raw data was transformed into a more easily accessible database, and how it can unlock opportunities for digital storytelling. At the same time, the workshop will provide a space to think about how such datasets might reflect social sciences historical biases which must be taken into consideration when using them for digital scholarship.
The symposium
A free online symposium on 3 December will bring together researchers, historians, archivists, scholars, and creative practitioners who have worked with HIV and AIDS related documents.
Book your free place on Eventbrite
Download the full programme (PDF, 0.3 MB)
Archives and collections
The early outcomes of a survey of HIV and AIDS archives in the UK due to be published in 2025 will be presented alongside collections and cataloguing projects at The National Archives, Wellcome Collection, Bishopsgate Institute, George House Trust, as well as living archives such as The UK HIV and AIDS Design Archive or The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Historical research
Scholars including Prof. Matt Cook, Prof. Virginia Berridge and Dr. George Severs will share their experience doing research on state and community archives, as well as working with oral history and grassroot activism.
Creative Responses and Digital Research
Historian Wendy Rickard and playwright David Balcombe will talk about creative uses of HIV and AIDS archive and The National Archives digital researcher Bernard Ogden will show the challenges and opportunities to work with lesser-known digital resources.