I am delighted that my short article The Witness Seminar: A Research Note has been accepted for publication in Qualitative Research. The research note outlines and reflects on the witness seminars I organised and co-convened while working on Disentangling European HIV/AIDS Policies: Activism, Citizenship and Health.
Abstract
The ‘Witness Seminar’ as a method for recording contemporary histories is not well-known or widely employed. By inviting a number of people who were involved in a particular historical event to come together and tell this history collectively, the method enables the production of rich and compelling accounts of contemporary histories. In this article, I introduce the method and the procedures followed in four witness seminars that I organised and co-convened on various topics relating to HIV. I then go on to reflect on the value of this method and how the connections between seminar participants both gave shape to the narrative produced and were also telling of the collaborative history of HIV.
Key Words:
contemporary histories, HIV/AIDS, witness seminar, oral history, event
Emily Jay Nicholls 