Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Interchange: hiv/aids and U.S. History Emerging in the 1980s, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) ravaged minori-tized communities across the country and in the process transformed the United States. In this " Interchange, " the writers focus primarily on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (lgbtq) communities and communities of color, groups that make up the majority of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) in the United States, as a way to explore social, cultural, and political battles over recognizing the significance of aids and for access to treatment and prevention. The epidemic, and those affected by it, transformed public discussion of sexuality and race, poverty, and public health. But despite those radical changes, hiv/aids has rarely been included in the history of the post-1960s era. Working with Jennifer Brier, the JAH brought together nine scholars to discuss how the history of hiv/aids intersects with the history of the United States. Participants engaged in a far-ranging conversation that interweaves histories of sexuality, race, gender, medicine, social activism, and media, and explores how hiv/aids has been addressed, and ignored, in historical scholarship of the late twentieth century. As the first feature-length piece dedicated to the history of hiv/aids published by the Journal, this " Interchange " is able to delve deeply into many critical aspects of the history of hiv/aids but misses many others. The JAH and all the contributors hope this piece sparks and sustains new historical research across the many axes of the field of U.S. history. The JAH is indebted to all of the participants for sharing their thoughts on this subject.

Emerging in the 1980s, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) ravaged minoritized communities across the country and in the process transformed the United States. In this “Interchange,” the writers focus primarily on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities and communities of color, groups that make up the majority of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States, as a way to explore social, cultural, and political battles over recognizing the significance of AIDS and for access to treatment and prevention. The epidemic, and those affected by it, transformed public discussion of sexuality and race, poverty, and public health. But despite those radical changes, HIV/AIDS has rarely been included in the history of the post-1960s era.

Working with Jennifer Brier, the JAH brought together nine scholars to discuss how the history of HIV/AIDS intersects with the history of the United States. Participants engaged in a far-ranging conversation that interweaves histories of sexuality, race, gender, medicine, social activism, and media, and explores how HIV/AIDS has been addressed, and ignored, in historical scholarship of the late twentieth century. As the first feature-length piece dedicated to the history of HIV/AIDS published by the Journal, this “Interchange” is able to delve deeply into many critical aspects of the history of HIV/AIDS but misses many others. The JAH and all the contributors hope this piece sparks and sustains new historical research across the many axes of the field of U.S. history. The JAH is indebted to all of the participants for sharing their thoughts on this subject.

JONATHAN BELL is a professor of U.S. history at University College London. He is the author of The Liberal State on Trial: The Cold War and American Politics in the Truman Years (2004) and California Crucible: The Forging of Modern American Liberalism (2012). His current project, “Unhealthy Bodies: Health Care and the Rights Revolutions since the Sixties,” examines civil rights activism and health care politics to explore the sexual and gender dynamics of U.S. health care. Readers may contact Bell at jonathan.bell@ucl.ac.uk.

DARIUS BOST is an assistant professor of sexuality studies at San Francisco State University. He is the author of the forthcoming Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence. He is the coeditor of a special issue in the Black Scholar titled “Black Masculinities and the Matter of Vulnerability.” Readers may contact Bost at dbost@sfsu.edu.

JENNIFER BRIER is an associate professor of history and gender and women's studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis (2009) and the curator of “Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture,” a traveling exhibition for the National Library of Medicine. She currently directs a public history project on HIV/AIDS called “I'm Still Surviving: A Women's History of HIV/AIDS in the United States.” Brier was the guest editor for this Interchange. Readers may contact Brier at jbrier@uic.edu.

JULIO CAPÓ JR. is an assistant professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940 (2017). He is currently writing a book that places the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in the long history of violence, erasure, and displacement of queer Latina/o/x communites. Readers may contact Capó at capo@history.umass.edu.

JIH-FEI CHENG is an assistant professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Scripps College. He is working on a book tentatively titled “AIDS and Its Afterlives: Race, Gender, and the Queer Radical Imagination.” He worked in HIV/AIDS social services and was a board member of Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment. Readers may contact Cheng at jcheng@scrippscollege.edu.

DANIEL M. FOX is the president emeritus of the Milbank Memorial Fund. He is the author of Power and Illness: The Failure and Future of American Health Policy (1993) and The Convergence of Science and Governance: Research, Health Policy, and American States (2010), the coeditor of AIDS: The Making of a Chronic Disease (1992). He has served in three federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services. Readers may contact Fox at dmfox@milbank.org.

CHRISTINA HANHARDT is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence (2013). Her current project looks at the historical relationship between sexuality-based social movements and antipoverty movements, and examines in particular how a wide range of activists have taken up, and shaped, the strategy of “harm reduction” most associated with public health advocacy. Readers may contact Hanhardt at hanhardt@umd.edu.

EMILY K. HOBSON is an assistant professor of history and in the program in Gender, Race, and Identity at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the author of Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left (2016) and is currently working on a second book that explores the connection between AIDS activism and prison radicalism in the 1980s and 1990s. She is on the governing board of the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender History. Readers may contact Hobson at ehobson@unr.edu.

DAN ROYLES is an assistant professor of history at Florida International University. He is the author of the forthcoming book To Make the Wounded Whole: The Political Culture of African American AIDS Activism. He is currently working on an oral history of African American AIDS activists and is building an online archive of materials relating to HIV/AIDS in black communities. He is the book review editor for the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender History newsletter and is on the editorial board for OutHistory. Readers may contact Royles at droyles@fiu.edu.