VIROLOGY oral history project

VIROLOGY: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between isn’t a textbook. It’s not a view of viruses – the most abundant life forms on earth – from all perspectives. It’s my view, from my life and the lives of those around me.

No book is written by one author. This book is about queer family. It has many authors. There’s an essay co-written by Patrick Nathan; there’s an essay that includes extensive work by archivist Steven D Booth; much of the personal work, I argue, was co-written by my queer family who lived those experiences with me, and had significant say in the look, feel, and words of the final text.

Because no one person can write a definitive text on what a virus is, my good friend and brilliant scholar Dr. Whitney Richards-Calathes suggested this oral history project. Of course, I should mention Sarah Schulman’s ACT UP Oral History Project both as a source for my book and as a pre-cursor to this project.

Everyone is impacted by viruses. I want this repository to include voices that are often not considered when thinking about pandemics. Women are impacted by HIV/AIDS, both as folks who are positive and folks who are not. Queer and trans youth have had their lives shifted by COVID-19. We are all infected with many viruses at all times. What does it feel like – for anyone, for all of us – to live on a viral world?

Using the button below, readers (and anyone, really) can submit their reactions to the book. Readers can also respond with their own lived experience(s) with viruses: How have viruses impacted your life? What viruses are living in and/or with you? Do you experience shame around viral infections? Does knowing that viruses are the most abundant life forms on earth – more numerous than stars in the sky – change how you feel about the many viruses that live in you, me, and all of us?

When was the first time you had sex without being afraid of HIV (if ever)? How did it feel to first get your vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 (if you were able)?

Once a month, I’ll review the submissions just to remove anything harmful or offensive, and post the rest here so that we, as a community, can grow together and learn with and from one another.

For an ethics and consent agreement, scroll down or click here. This is a living document and public repository, but participants can always contact me through the contact page on this website and remove if they choose to remove their content.