AGQ-F0179

Fonds Kalpesh Oza. – [195-]-1994. – 5 cm of textual records – 119 photographs.

 

 

Biographical sketch:

 

Kalpesh Narendra Oza was an activist, artist, and microbiologist who worked to combat HIV/AIDS.

 

He was born in Ahmedabad in 1961 and lived in India until 1984, when he left his native country to pursue his studies in microbiology at the University of Windsor. In 1985, he transferred to McGill University and moved to Montreal. With two master’s degrees in science, he completed his doctorate at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the Royal Victoria Hospital. It was in Montreal that he first fully embraced his homosexuality.

 

In March 1988, Kalpesh Oza discovered that he had been HIV-positive since 1986. He then worked with numerous organizations fighting HIV/AIDS, including the Comité des personnes atteintes du VIH (CPAVIH), Act Up Montréal, AIDS Action Now!, and The Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP).

 

In the early 1990s, he moved to Toronto, where he worked as an immunology researcher at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. He died of AIDS on 4 June 1995.

 

 

Scope and content:

 

The fonds focuses on Kalpesh Oza’s activities as an activist, microbiologist, artist, and lecturer within various organizations.

 

The fonds contains typewritten and handwritten documents relating to his activist activities, as well as photographs of his travels, family, and friends in India.

 

 

The fonds contains the following files:

 

  • AGQ-F00179/D1. Photographies
  • AGQ-F00179/D2. Kalpesh Oza. Lettre à Andrée Lapierre
  • AGQ-F00179/D3. Kalpesh Oza. Comité des personnes atteintes du VIH (CPAVIH) du Québec
  • AGQ-F00179/D4. [Kalpesh Oza]. Notes pour conférences
  • AGQ-F00179/D5. [Kalpesh Oza]. Écrits divers
  • AGQ-F00179/D6. K. Oza et K. Patel. Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention
  • AGQ-F00179/D7. [Kalpesh Oza]. Suivis de l’état de santé et traitements médicaux
  • AGQ-F00179/D8. [K. Oza et G. Kinsman]. AIDS Action Now!
  • AGQ-F00179/D9. Kalpesh Oza. « From Tradition and Laboratory to the Market… »
  • AGQ-F00179/D10. Kalpesh Oza. « Living with AIDS on Roller Blades »
  • AGQ-F00179/D11. William M. Hoffman. « As Is », Vintage Books. [copie avec signature de Kalpesh Oza]

 

 

Notes:

 

Source of title proper: Title based on the contents of the fonds.

 

Immediate source of acquisition: The fonds was transferred to the AGQ on 13 May 2018 by the estate of Kalpesh Oza (acquisition 2018-013).

 

Language: The documents are in English and French.

 

Finding aids: Digital inventory of the fonds in Excel format.

 

 

Bibliography:

 

An obituary for Kalpesh Narendra Oza. South Asian American Digital Archive. (Accessed on 3 May 2022).

 

Kalpesh Oza. AIDS Activist History Project. (Accessed on 3 May 2022).

 

 

 

 

 

            Dernière modification : 2026-02-10