AIDS Campaigning between the Global South and Western Europe since the 1980s

Medical humanities research, namely interdisciplinary research in humanities and social sciences studying the links between society and health, is often biased: it focuses on ideas from the Global Northwest or doesn't take into account the importance of movements started by people of colour all over the world. Along with this, studies of global protest cultures have only recently started to try to include the different experiences and voices of people around the world, especially those in Western Europe and the Global South who are facing racism, sexism, and homophobia. So, there is a risk of ignoring the fact that queer people of colour can help fight against social divisions and differences in health between the Global North and South. This is a very important thing to think about right now. Recent data (Platt, 2021; NCBI, 2020) show that AIDS and COVID hurt black people the most around the world. In the meantime, queer people of colour face persistent prejudice across the globe due to their sexual orientation, race, and in some cases, gender identity and religion (Stonewall, 2019).

My research vision is to significantly contribute to an emerging movement of scholars, labelled the critical medical humanities. These researchers try to shed light on understudied social hierarchies in medical humanities and fix this geopolitical gap by bringing in views from outside the West. In particular, my FLF study shows the unexplored importance of AIDS campaigns that have been going on in the Global South since the 1980s for relevant group action in Western Europe. In demonstrating the underexamined importance of various queer activists of colour, migrants and postmigrants, in connecting aids campaigners in Western Europe and the Global South, my proposed research diversifies research on protest cultures but also on sexuality and race. The results of this study will enable me to make health campaigns in the UK more inclusive, which will help them reach more people from black and queer communities. The FLF will also let me work with South Africa's creative economy to make a documentary about AIDS that will feature local queer activists and help South Africa's queer groups deal with social prejudice. My long-term goal is for the FLF to lead to a model study of health activism in general, including efforts to fight major diseases like AIDS, COVID, and HPV. This study will show how campaigners in the Global South and between the Global South and the Global North are connected, while taking into account their geopolitical limits. The FLF will allow me to develop such research and impact through fair partnerships with the Global South and NGOs involving people of colour.