09 Oct

13:00

IHLIA LGBTI Heritage

Oosterdokskade 143, Amsterdam

A symposium celebrating a special issue of the Dutch Journal of Gender Studies, focusing on intersectional stories of HIV and AIDS that are often neglected in dominant storytelling.

Looking for Intersectional Narratives of HIV and AIDS

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Since the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and Europe, people have been telling stories about the way in which the virus has affected communities. Even now, over forty years since the first diagnoses, many novels, films, and TV series are produced about HIV and AIDS. Many of these stories, however, narrate the experiences of white gay men in the inner cities of the United States and Europe. This begs the question: which other stories are out there?

For Tijdschrift voor genderstudies (Dutch Journal of Gender Studies), Looi van Kessel (Leiden University) and Jesse van Amelsvoort (University of Amsterdam) collected research on intersectional stories of HIV and AIDS. In a special issue of the journal, various scholars discuss the stories of communities that are often neglected in dominant storytelling. To celebrate the publication of this issue, Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies and IHLIA are jointly organizing this symposium.

During the symposium, various contributors to the issue will discuss their research. We will also dive into IHLIA’s archives to reflect on the stories that have been told in the Netherlands. We conclude the symposium with the screening of the fictional documentary Un pète au casque (1997), by Greg Rowe; an educational film that sought to foreground the realities of living with HIV in the French countryside.