Robert Ariss was the Senior Research Assistant at the National Centre for HIV Social Research, School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney. He served on many AIDS advisory bodies and organizations, including the Australian National Council on AIDS; the AIDS Council of New South Wales; the National People Living with AIDS Coalition; and People Living with AIDS (N.S.W.). In 1993 he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney, for his doctoral thesis, Against death: the Sydney gay community responds to AIDS. He began writing a book based on his doctoral thesis, and had almost completed the final draft when he died on 9 May 1994 from AIDS-related complications. Gary W. Dowsett finished editing the manuscript, and the book, titled Against death: the practice of living with AIDS, was published in 1997.
