Somatosphere is happy to announce Transcriptions, a new online forum on the critical intersections of HIV/AIDS, global health, and the social sciences. Transcriptions seeks to trace evolving developments in HIV science and global health programs; connect social scientists, scholars in the humanities, and biomedical and public health researchers; and encourage critical engagement with methodological, ethical, and philosophical questions on and around science, interventions, and programming. As a project of Somatosphere, Transcriptions builds on the conversations emerging between these disciplines. And as a collaborative project, we’re hoping you will be part of this conversation.

The forum will review relevant scholarly articles (In the Journals) and important new books (On the Shelves); share interviews and conversations with key scholars (Dialogues); collect and summarize print and web news (Broadsheets); post information about conferences, seminars, and other relevant event (Announcements); and solicit in-depth analyses of hot and emerging issues (Emerging Issues). In addition to the Categories, we will feature an ongoing series on specific topics. Currently, the series include History and HIV/AIDS, Keywords, and Methodologies, and more will be coming soon.

Recently, there have been important new scientific advances in the field of HIV prevention and treatment; new techniques in modelling disease incidence and interventions; new political alignments (both globally and locally) in global health programs; and new willingness to engage in conversation with the social sciences and humanities, drawing on decades of close observation. Will this be a period in which major strides are made in combating the HIV epidemic and other diseases because social, political, clinical, and biological evidence is combined in equitable, just and effective interventions? Or will it be a moment of increasing biomedicalization, of new modes of subjection and exclusion, and of a security-based logic of population control?

Transcriptions also represents a new kind of forum at Somatosphere, a kind of site-within-the-site.  While all Transcriptions posts will appear on the main Somatosphere page (and on the various feeds), the new forum also has its own front page, a place for readers with a particular interest in HIV/AIDS, global health and the social sciences. Somatosphere readers will notice that Transcriptions has a distinct set of categories and series, as well as its own Masthead, Contributors and Submissions page. Clicking on a Transcriptions post — even from the main Somatosphere page — will take readers into the Transcriptions portion of the site.  You will know you’re in Transcriptions by the green color scheme on the pages.  To return to the main Somatosphere page, just follow the “Back to Somatosphere” link at the top of the sidebar.

If you’re involved in global health and HIV/AIDS work, whether as a scientist, practitioner, activist, or scholar, please get in touch with us and share your ideas at transcriptions@somatosphere.net