Staff Profiles

I am currently researching global HIV and AIDS oral history. I have partnered with the British Library Sound Archive (BLSA) on and off over thirty years, particularly leading on the HIV and AIDS Testimonies Collection (C743, 1995-2000), which formed the basis for the 2022 BBC TV series, ’AIDS: The Unheard Tapes’. My BLSA collections also include the Oral History of Prostitution (C803, 1997-2001), Life Testimony and Health Promotion (C931, 1998-2000), and HIV Testimonies Revisited (C743, 2005-2008). I remain passionate about the actual craft and act of oral history interviewing and interview for other BLSA projects, including those focused on HIV & Haemophilia, HIV Haemophilia Families, HIV Healthcare Staff and wider National Life Story collections, including Design Lives, Craft Lives, the British Library Corporate Memory Programme and the Oral Histories of Oral History Collection. I was a former journal editor on Oral History.

My wider career has been in Public Health teaching and research (University of Kent, University of East London, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London South Bank University and University of Exeter), with interests in community engagement, participatory methods, shared authority, sexualities and inequalities.

Recent work has been with young people including: a National Heritage Lottery funded participatory oral history project with young people at Chiva titled ‘Positively Spoken: Growing up with HIV’(2021-2023); and a youth development and climate justice vox-pop project with Sustainable Tiverton, setting up ‘SASSY- Serious About Sustainable Society led by Youth’ with Devon Community Foundation and Transition Town funding (2024-2025).

I am currently working on the research project: Disrupted Narratives, Exposed Voices: A Global Analysis of HIV Oral History and its Public Dissemination (1985-2025). After Covid-19, countries are mobilising resources to protect against future disease threats, leaving unfinished the forty-year fight against HIV and AIDS. Oral history has been used to document the fragile communities, frequent discrimination, marginalisation and stigma that came with HIV. This research questions whether its contribution to history is balanced. It hypothesises that oral history resources are prone to the same biases as HIV medicines, which have not been shared fairly or equitably.

I am gathering oral history evidence for analysis hoping to interpret global pandemic legacy through the HIV lens and contemplating one aspect of how history is currently being written. To do so, I am developing a novel narrative meta-ethnographic method to better understand the scale, content and accessibility of HIV oral history worldwide. I am particularly interested in power and inequality in the historical process and in identifying gaps in current voice recordings. I am interested in radical archiving, creative outputs, digitisation, AI searching and dissemination, and in networking with scholars and communities across the world with experience in these areas. Key recommendations identifying endangered archives in the HIV context and improving resource discovery will be proposed.

• Articles

  • Rickard W, Di M, Ely A, Fitzgerald E, Mukonoweshuro R. Resisting oral history's sonic silence on youth. Oral History 2025. In Press.
  • Rickard W. ‘HIV of old’: reflections on the scope, re-use and narrators in long-form oral history. Oral History 2024, 52(3), 76-83.
  • Wills, J, Whittaker, A, Rickard, W, Felix, C. Troubled, troubling or in trouble: the stories of “troubled families”. British Journal of Social Work 2016, 1-18. In Preparation.
  • Rickard, W, Bezuayehu, H, Nga, J, Smith, J. Moving Stories: Local Health Trainers in Mental Health. Mental Health Today 2014, Jan/Feb, 24-27. In Preparation.
  • Maxwell, E, Baillie, L, Rickard, W, McLaren, SM. Exploring the relationship between social identity and workplace jurisdiction for new nursing roles: A case study approach. International Journal of Nursing Studies 2012. In Preparation.
  • Rickard, W, Evans, S, Reeves, S, Cameron, G. What are sex worker stories good for? Public use of oral histories. Oral History 2011, 39(1), 1-103.
  • Rickard, W, Purtell, R. Finding a way to pay in the UK: Methods and mechanisms for paying service users involved in research. Disability & Society 2011, 26(1), 33-48. In Preparation.
  • Rickard, W. Historias desde el borde –una decada de vida con el VIH. Historia, Anthropologia y Fuentes Orales, ‘Romper silencios’ 2009, 41(3a), 147-158. In Preparation.
  • Molineux, M, Rickard, W. Storied approaches to understanding occupation. Journal of Occupational Science 2003, 10(1), 55-63.
  • Rickard, W. Collaborating with sex workers in oral history. Oral History Review 2003, 30(1), 47-59.
  • Rickard, W. Work-based learning in health: Evaluating the experiences of learners, community agencies and teachers. Teaching in Higher Education 2002, 7(1), 47-63.
  • Rickard, W, Growney, T. Using oral history in peer education with sex workers. Oral History 2001, 30(1), 108-114. In Preparation.
  • Rickard, W, Growney, T. Occupational health and safety amongst sex workers: A pilot peer education resource. Health Education Theory and practice 2001, 16(3), 321-333.
  • Rickard, W. Been there, seen it, done it: British sex workers reflect on jobs, hopes, the future and retirement. Feminist Review 2001, 67, 111-132.
  • Rickard, W. Historia oral, trauma y tabu (Oral history, trauma and taboo). Historia, Anthropologia y Fuentes Orales 2000, 23(1), 121-134.
  • Rickard, W. Health in East London: Transferring skills to the community. Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching 2000, 1(1), 72-88.
  • Rickard, W, Moore, D, Azad, A. Health in East London: Blending the academic and the practical. Rising East 2000, 2(3), 122-135. In Preparation.
  • Rickard W, Stapleton J. From Bass Clef to Blue Note: a history of jazz in East London. Rising East 1999, 3(2), 138 -145.
  • Rickard, W. Oral history -More dangerous than therapy?. Oral History 1998, 26(20), 34-38. In Preparation.
  • Rickard, W. HIV/AIDS and Older People. Generations Review 1995, 2, 1-8. In Preparation.
  • Bebbington A, Rickard W, Warren P. Addressing health and social care needs in the community for people with HIV/AIDS. Social Services Research 1995, 4, 26-42.

• Book Chapters

  • Molineux, M, Strong, J, Rickard, W. Living with HIV infection: Insights into occupational markers of health and occupational adaptation. In: Occupational Science for Occupational Therapists. Australia: Slack, 2025. In Preparation.
  • Rickard, W,Purtell, R. Doing Good Service User Led Research: reflecting on ‘Past Caring’ methodology. In: Mental health service users in research: critical sociological perspectives. Bristol: Policy Press, 2025, pp.25-38. In Preparation.
  • Purtell, R, Rickard, W, Wyatt, K. Should we? Could We? Measuring Involvement. In: Barnes, M; Cotterell, P, ed. Critical Perspectives on user involvement. Bristol: Policy Press, 2012. In Preparation.
  • Rickard, W. The Biographical Turn in Health Studies. In: Chamberlayne, P; Bornat, J; Apitzsch, U, ed. Biographical Methods and Professional Practice: An international Perspective. 2004, pp.165-180.
  • Rickard, W. HIV/Aids Testimonies in the 1990s. In: Bornat, J; Perks, R; Thompson, P; Walmsley, J, ed. Oral History, Health and Welfare. London: Routledge, 2000, pp.227-248.
  • Rickard, W. Talking lived reality: using oral history to record a more balanced history of sex work. In: Elias, J; Bullough, V.L; Elias, V; Brewer, G, ed. Prostitution: On Whores, Hustlers and Johns. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998, pp.354-360.
  • Rickard, W. Life and Death. In: BBC/British Library, ed. The Century Speaks: BBC Millennium Oral History Project Research Guide. 1998, pp.113-121.

• Edited Book

  • Rickard W, Ryan H, Growney T, Williams P, ed. Life Testimony and Health Promotion Project: A Summary. 2000.

• Report

  • Rickard, W, Donkin, A. A Fair, Supportive Society: Summary Report. 2018. In Preparation.