Hidden histories of HIV

Dr Hannah Elizabeth is a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a cultural historian of health, sexuality and childhood in Britain. They are currently working on a Wellcome-funded fellowship investigating how HIV-affected people built and maintained families in Edinburgh and influenced national and international policy and practice through daily acts of love, care, and activism. Their most recent publication from the project is ‘Recovering Mothers’ Experiences of HIV/AIDS Health Activism in Edinburgh, 1983–2000’. They have published widely on the history of British public-health education and teenage sexual health.

Dr Janet Weston is an assistant professor in the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is interested in histories of health in modern Britain, particularly in relation to mental illness, sexuality, population health, and the law. She has researched and written about the history of HIV/AIDS in prisons, and edited with Hannah Elizabeth the collection ‘Histories of HIV/AIDS in Western Europe: new and regional perspectives’. Her latest book is ‘Looking After Miss Alexander: Care, Mental Capacity, and the Court of Protection in Mid-Twentieth-Century England’.

Paul Steinberg is communications professional currently working for the NHS in Greater Manchester. He has been an HIV-prevention activist and campaigner for over 20 years and, until last year, he was the Lead Commissioner and Director of the London HIV Prevention Programme where, in 2015, he devised and led the public-facing HIV awareness campaign ‘Do It London’. Originally trained as a broadcast journalist, he worked at the BBC for a number of years before joining the NHS, and is a regular guest lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on social marketing and public health.