Welcome to the AIDS Activist History Project website!
AIDS activists changed the world. They organized, strategized, and put their bodies on the line. They won victories that we are still benefiting from today; the work they did to shape a world for people living with HIV and AIDS is part of the terrain of struggle we inherit now.
As a part of the AAHP, we have been learning about AIDS activists’ work in the Canadian context. We interviewed people who were active in collective groups the 1980s and 1990s in Halifax/Nova Scotia, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. We also gathered ephemera from archives and from AIDS activists across Canada. So far, we have conducted over 60 interviews and recovered over 600 pieces of ephemera, which are available for display in our collection.
We invite you to discover more about the history of AIDS activism. Read the interview transcripts, watch the videos, and check out our (ever-growing collection) of ephemera. Please visit our interview, ephemera, feature, and memorial pages for more.
We invite you to use our materials for your own research and thinking. Please feel free to use these materials for your own work. If you use them, please get in touch with us to share about your work. We look forward to connecting with others, and to seeing traces of this project in others’ work.
About the project
The AIDS Activist History Project is hosted at Carleton University by Alexis Shotwell with Gary Kinsman as the primary co-researcher. The project was supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
This project is hosted on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin territory. As we document one part of the history of “Canada,” we acknowledge the genocidal and colonial context of this part of Turtle Island and honour the historical and ongoing resistance and resilience of Indigenous people here and elsewhere.
To learn more about the AAHP (including about our team and our approach), visit our research team page and our research page, or connect with us at aidsactivisthistory@gmail.com