Category Archives: Conference

AAA 2015 meetings in Denver

Hello everyone,

We are coming up on that time of year again. The AAA meetings! The ADTSG business meeting will be on Friday November 20, 2015: 7:45 PM-9:00 PM in 110 Colorado Convention Center. It will be a relatively short meeting, followed by dinner and drinks (location TBD). We will be discussing plans for next years AAA meetings, as well as reviewing the proposal for a policy statement on Cannabis. If you have not yet reviewed the proposal, please take a look here. If you are unable to attend the meetings, you can send comments on the proposal to  adtstudygroup@gmail.com.

Here is a list of some more events that might strike your fancy.

3-0225 HIGH STAKES: MARIJUANA, ETHNOGRAPHY, AND AMERICAN GEOGRAPHIES OF RISK Thursday, November 19, 2015: 8:00 AM-9:45 AM

3-1340 AT “HOME” IN THE FIELD: PROXIMITY AND PERSPECTIVES IN ETHNOGRAPHIES OF DRUG USE (Roundtable) Thursday, November 19, 2015: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM

3-0515 FAMILIAR WEED, STRANGE NEW STATUS:  MEDICAL & RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA CONSUMPTION IN ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE Thursday, November 19, 2015: 10:15 AM-12:00 PM

4-0240 FAMILIAR OR STRANGE? CONVERGENCES AND DIVERGENCES IN NEWLY EMERGING REGULATED PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS  Friday, November 20, 2015: 8:00 AM-9:45 AM

4-1510 ADTSG OPEN BUSINESS MEETING & SOCIAL OUTING Friday, November 20, 2015: 7:45 PM-9:00 PM

5-1230 ADDICTIONS Saturday, November 21, 2015: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM

5-0930 MAKING SENSE OF MENTAL HEALTH AMIDST RISING RURAL SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN NORTH AMERICA: CLASS, RACE, AND IDENTITY IN TREATMENT-SEEKING Saturday, November 21, 2015: 1:45 PM-3:30 PM

See you in Denver!

AAA 2015 Call for Presenters: Black Bodies Matter

blacklivesmatter

Dear ADTSG members,

During the special interest group (SIG) chairs meeting at the AAA meetings last year, a number groups that they wanted to put together a roundtable investigating a particular issue through the various lens of our SIGS. The topic they have selected is “Black Bodies Matter”. Below is a drafted abstract for the roundtable. If anyone in our membership is interested in representing our SIG in this event, please send me an email ASAP and I will get you in touch with the roundtable organizer. Also, if you know of anyone else who’s work and/or perspective would fit well into this session, please let me know.

-Taz
karimtaz@msu.edu

_________

2015 AAA Call for Presenters

In 2014 the reality of the differential treatment of persons of color by the police department became visible because of recent technologies that can videotape events as they occur. The response of the police may not be indicative of overt racism, (except in some specific locations especially since the election of the first African American President) but rather a deep seeded racism that is long standing in the United States. This visual reality led to demonstrations across the country. Unfortunately the assassination of two New York City police officers by a mentally disturbed individual has complicated the issues involved in the demonstrations that highlight the theme “Black Bodies Matter.” All bodies matter, but the outpouring of sympathy for the two innocent police officers underscores the differential responses that are given to the timely deaths of individuals of color.

Subsequently more killing of black bodies has occurred around the United States. Many of these killings have had limited press coverage. Demonstrations that have followed these killings also have received minimum coverage.

Medical anthropology has long been associated with research in various types of medical issues. However, researchers also has been concerned about ways in which their research can make visible the concerns and realities that hinder and impede life changes for individuals who are different rather in relation to health, ethnicity, race, gender, and habits. The Special Interests Groups of the Society of Medical Anthropology present ways in which the thought that “Black Bodies Matter” or perhaps non white bodies has not been brought to the forefront of change and reconciliation thus limiting the opportunities available to members of various  groups and an awareness of damage that has been reality in their lives.

Black bodies matter even when they are ill, disabled, young, old, pregnant, dying, have HIV, are infectious, have psychiatric impairments, are students, believe in alternative medicine, have substance abuse issues and live in various parts of the world. In this round table discussion a member of each of the special groups of the society for medical anthropology will open the discussion around specific issues that black bodies pose in relation to the to the focus of their special interest group.

2015 AAA CFP: Familiar or Strange? Considering Parallels and Divergences between Alcohol and Marijuana

Call For Papers – American Anthropological Association Meeting, November 18-22, 2015, Denver, CO

Familiar or Strange? Considering Parallels and Divergences between Alcohol and Marijuana

Please Respond by Sunday, April 12

Sponsored by the Alcohol, Drug, and Tobacco Study Group (ADTSG) of the Society for Medical Anthropology, we are organizing a session on the ways that the newly experienced legality of cannabis resembles and differs from alcohol. Our session abstract reads:

This panel explores the ways in which the strange new realm of marijuana regulation and industry draws on and differs from the familiar realm of alcohol control and production. Building on the shared history of ‘controlled’ to ‘regulated’, we consider the history and context of social and legal control as well as the expressions and realities of commodification of alcohol and cannabis. Anthropology has long demonstrated that systems of social control and regulation of drugs as well as other commodities are fluid, shifting temporally and embedded in particular historical, economic, and cultural contexts. The criminalization of marijuana in the United States has been documented, for instance, to represent a confluence in the early 1900s of the medicalization of health care, a racialized and xenophobic national discourse, and the temperance and prohibition movements. Alcohol, too, experienced a similar fate in the early 1900s, but was redeemed and reclassified due to the widespread dissent against and the unintended consequences of prohibition. Classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, cannabis use remains illegal under federal law. However, widespread acceptance of use, questions about its negative health consequences, and persistent criticism on the disparate implications of criminalization in the U.S. has led to growing popular dissent and state-level efforts for legalization. The cultural and legal shift of marijuana from an illicit to a regulated drug in some U.S. states then parallels the historical oscillations of the legality of alcohol with some important differences. As of 2015, 27 U.S. states have decriminalized or legalized cannabis possession and/or medical or recreational use. Four states have legalized the sale for recreational use and initiated regulation. As these states grapple with marijuana regulation in the face of legalization, the familiar domain of alcohol is helping shape the strange new legal commodity of cannabis. State governments, the emerging cannabis industry, and citizens alike in jurisdictions with legalization are drawing from alcohol regulation and industry as a model for this new legal commodity. State alcohol control boards are taking on the task of establishing commercial licensing practices, cannabis store fronts and advertising draw on alcohol marketing strategies, and consumers are adopting the language of a legalized but controlled substance. As we meet in Denver where recreational marijuana sales have been sanctioned legally, we shall reflect on these parallels and differences with ethnographic and anthropological lenses.

Please send an abstract (no longer than 250 words) to Kristen Ogilvie atogilvie@uaa.alaska.edu by the end of the day Sunday, April 12, 2015. Invitations to participate will be sent out on Monday, April 13, to allow for registration and abstract uploading on the AAA website by the deadline of 5PM EDT on Wednesday, April 15

2015 AAA Call for Presenters

**CALL FOR PRESENTERS**
American Anthropological Association Meetings
Denver, CO, December 18-22, 2015

At “Home” in the Field:
Proximity and Perspectives in Ethnographies of Drug Use

Positionality is an important concern for ethnographers of drug use, and takes on particular complexities when this research takes place ‘at home.’ They must navigate particular forms of proximity and distance – social, spatial, political economic, historical, affective, etcetera – which are continually transformed over the course of long-term ethnographic engagement. As the familiar is made strange, and the strange familiar, the ethical, political and personal stakes of our ethnographic encounters are often remade in revelatory – and at times heartbreaking – ways. In this round table, we invite presenters to offer a reflexive account of how ambiguous borders between ‘the field’ and ‘home’ can shape ethnographies of drug use, in order to better understand how anthropologists position themselves – and are positioned – in these complex exchanges. Topics might include:

  1. Participant observation/the consumption of drugs/proximity to crime
  2. Proximity to our interlocutors ‘outside of’ our study or ‘the field’
  3. The anthropologist as ‘insider,’ ‘outsider,’ or insider and outsider
  4. The role played by time (long term ethnographic engagement) in blurring the boundaries between ‘home’ and ‘the field,’ and/or ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’
  5. Moments of sea change or crisis in which the boundaries between ‘home’ and ‘the field,’ and/or ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ shift
  6. The personal stakes of our research

Please send 250-word abstracts to Tazin Daniels (karimtaz@msu.edu) and Danya Fast (dfast@cfenet.ubc.ca) by April 12, 2015. We will notify you of acceptance by April 13 so you will have time to submit individually if necessary. We look forward to your contributions!

 

ADTSG at 2015 SFAA Meetings in Pittsburgh, PA

pittsburghDear ADTSG members,

ADTSG will be participating in the 2015 Society for Applied Anthropology Conference this week from March 24-28 in Pittsburg, PA. Thursday, March 26 will be especially packed with activities related to our special interest group. Here is a breakdown of what’s in store:

ADTSG Organized Panel
(TH-92) THURSDAY 1:30-3:20 (Sternwheeler) Thinking about Drinking: Anthropologists in Alcohol Research, CHAIR: LEE, Juliet P. (PIRE)

  • OGILVIE, Kristen A. (UAA) Prostrate or Indispensable?: An Anthropologist’s Role on Multidisciplinary Alcohol Research Teams
  • ABRAHAM, Traci, CHENEY, Ann, CURRAN, Geoff, BOOTH, Brenda, and FRITH, Katherine (CAVHS) Cultural Constraints to Sobriety among Returning Reservists and National Guards Service Members
  • LABORDE, Nicole D. and VAN DER STRATEN, Ariane (RTI Int’l), STADLER, Jonathan (U Witwatersrand), MONTGOMERY, Elizabeth (RTI Int’l), MATHEBULA, Florence (U Witwatersrand,), and HARTMANN, Miriam (RTI Int’l) Narratives of Alcohol Use, Risk and Trial Participation in an HIV Prevention Trial in Johannesburg, South Africa
  • MOORE, Roland S. (PIRE), ROBERTS, Jennifer A. (SCTHC), LEE, Juliet P. (PIRE), LUNA, Juan A. (SCTHC), and GILDER, David A. (Scripps Rsch Inst) Interdisciplinary Alcohol Research in a Tribal Setting: Sovereignty, Capacity Building, and Anthropological Partnerships
  • BENNETT, Linda A. (U Memphis), MARSHALL, Mac (U Iowa), and AMES, Genevieve M. (Prev Rsch Ctr) Early 21st Century Developments in Anthropological Research on Alcohol

ADTSG Business meeting
THURSDAY 5:30-7:00 (Laughlin)
On the Agenda:

  • Plans for 2015 AAA conference in Denver
  • Discussion of SMA policy statement on Canibus (more info coming soon)
  • Discussion of funding opportunities for ADTSG projects
  • Plans for officer positions for 2016

ADTSG Social Outing
THURSDAY 7:00-10:00, location to be determined. We will be meeting in the Lobby of the Omni at 7pm for those who would like to join us.

Other panels/papers of interest for ADTSG members:

  • (W-40) WEDNESDAY 10:00-11:50 Vandergrift Redefining Communities by Reengineering Health Care (CONAA): WALLACE, Debra (Kaiser Permanente, CHER) The Impact of Drugstore Clinics
  • (W-62) WEDNESDAY 12:00-1:20 Sternwheeler Translating Ethnography into Intervention: SCHENSUL, Jean (ICR), NAIR, Saritha (NIMS), BILGI, Sameena, BEGUM, Shahina, and DONTA, Balaiah (NIRRH) Developing a Multilevel Intervention for Women Smokeless Tobacco Users in Mumbai
  • (W-93) WEDNESDAY 1:30-3:20 Riverboat Engagement and Student Ethnographic Research, Part I: CRIVELLARO, Peter (IUP) Student Perspectives on Drug Use
  • (W-127) WEDNESDAY 3:30-5:20 Conference C Risk and Resilience in Mountain Communities: Himalayas of Ladakh and the Dolomite Alps of Cadore, Part II: PILLAI, Priyanka and PILLAI, Prishanya (U Rochester) The Role of Religious Leaders in Tobacco Control in Ladakh; SURESH, Aditya (U Rochester) Grassroots Resiliency: A Total Ban on Tobacco and Alcohol Sales in the Nubra Valley, Ladakh
  • (TH-127) THURSDAY 3:30-5:20 Conference: CHAFFLING, Ian (IUP) Up In Smoke: A Participant Observation of Cigarette Smoking at IUP
  • (TH-121) THURSDAY 3:30-5:20 William Penn Ballroom Posters: RICHARDSON, Samantha, TAYLOR, Moriah, and JENKINS, Katie (St Vincent Coll) This Is College: An Analysis of Student Experiences with Drug and Alcohol Policies; TAYLOR, Moriah, JENKINS, Katelyn, and RICHARDSON, Samantha (St Vincent Coll) The College Experience: Exploring Student Perceptions of Alcohol and Drug Policies; CHEN, Xinlin and HANSEN, Helena (NYU) Narratives of Opioid Dependence among Suburban and Urban Residents: A Comparison of Staten Island and Manhattan; MENDOZA, Sonia, RIVERA, Allyssa, and HANSEN, Helena (NYU) The Impact of Opioid Prescriber Surveillance on Doctor-Patient Relationships and Drug Markets
  • (TH-170) THURSDAY 5:30-7:20 Fox Chapel About Social Problems of Our Time: BUTTRAM, Mance and KURTZ, Steven (Nova Southeastern U) Law, Policy, and Substance Use in Miami’s Dance Club Culture; FAST, Danya (UBC, British Columbia Ctr for Excellence in HIVAIDS) Material and Moral Economies of Drug Dealing and Gang-Related Crime in Vancouver’s Inner City; FAST, Danya, CUNNINGHAM, David, and KERR, Thomas (UBC, British Columbia Ctr for Excellence in HIVAIDS) We Don’t Belong There: New Geographies of Homelessness, Addiction and Social Control in Vancouver’s Inner City
  • (F-50) FRIDAY 10:00-11:50 Fox Chapel Promoting Continuity AND Change for Health: Examining the Competing Roles of Anthropologists in Health Education-Public Health Applications, Part I: PREMKUMAR, Ashish (UCSF) “The Opposite of a History”: What Substance Use in Pregnancy Can Lend to a Critical Clinical Anthropology of Addiction
  • (S-18) SATURDAY 8:00-9:50 Oakmont Small Island / Big Problems: Ethnographic Training and Applied Field Research on Isla Mujeres, Mexico: SMITH, Marissa (U Chicago) Tequila Sunrise: Culture, Gender, and Alcoholism on Isla Mujeres
  • (S-11) SATURDAY 8:00-9:50 Carnegie I Applying Social Sciences to Health, Part I: CICCARONE, Dan (UCSF) Fire in the Vein: Heroin Acidity, Vein Loss and Abscesses

For up-to-date information about ADTSG activities, please check the blog as well as the new ADTSG twitter account: adtstudygroup or Taz’s twitter account: PharmaCulture.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in the City of Bridges!

Tazin Karim Daniels
ADTSG, Chair

CALL FOR PAPERS “Encountering alcohol and other drugs” – Lisbon 16-18 September 2015

Cross-posted from: https://networks.h-net.org/node/8001/discussions/54720/conference-announcement-call-papers-encountering-alcohol-and-other

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT: CALL FOR PAPERS

Encountering alcohol and other drugs
16-18 September 2015
Lisbon, Portugal
CLOSING DATE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION – 16 MARCH 2015

Dear colleagues,

Join us in Lisbon next year for the third Contemporary Drug Problems conference. Bringing together international researchers in drug use and addiction studies from a range of research disciplines, the conference will explore alcohol and other drug use in light of growing interest in issues of relationality, contingency and emergence. Further details on the conference theme, format, abstract submission and venue can be found at http://ndri.curtin.edu.au/local/docs/pdf/cdp_lisbon_2015.pdf.

Please forward this email to interested colleagues and relevant email lists.

With many thanks

David Moore, Editor

Contemporary Drug Problems

On behalf of the Conference Committee:

  • Kim Bloomfield (Contemporary Drug Problems & Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark)
  • Nancy Campbell (Contemporary Drug Problems & Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)
  • Suzanne Fraser (Contemporary Drug Problems & National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Australia)
  • David Moore (Contemporary Drug Problems & National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Australia)
  • Jane Mountenay (Contemporary Drug Problems & European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Portugal)
  • Mark Stoové (Contemporary Drug Problems & Burnet Institute, Curtin University, Australia)

ADTSG at 2014 AAA meetings in Washington, D.C.

washington dc

Hello from Washington, D.C.! This year at the AAA meetings, ADTSG has a number of activities planned so take a look. Hope to see you there!

ADTSG Business Meeting
Thursday, December 3 @ 1:00PM-2:15PM in Marriott, Taft
Whether you are a curious graduate student or a regular attendee, we invite you to come meet everyone at the ADTSG business meeting. We will be talking about our profess in 2014 and brainstorming new plans for the coming year. Some agenda items include:

  • Ways to improve the website/blog
  • Policy Statement on Marijuana
  • Plans for SFAA 2015 in Pittsburg
  • Plans for AAA 2015

ADTSG PANEL: Professional Perspectives in the Anthropology of Drugs (SMA)
Saturday, December 6 @ 6:30PM-8:15 pm in Marriott, Thurgood Marshall West

  1. Do No Harm: Pharmacists and the Addicted Body Kathrine L Barnes (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)
  2. Debating Decriminalization in Argentina: The Role of Harm Reductionists in Drug Policy Reform Shana Harris (National Development and Research Institutes)
  3. Emergent Experts: Colorado’s Cannabis Workers and “Professional” Marijuana Expertise  Santiago I Guerra (Colorado College)
  4. Military Mental Health Provider Perspectives on Post-Combat Alcohol and Drug Treatment Utilization Gaps Roland S Moore (Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation), Genevieve M Ames (University of California Berkeley and Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation) and Martha L Lincoln (University of California Berkeley and Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation)
  5. Discussant Michael J Oldani (University of Wisconsin)

ADTSG SOCIAL OUTING
Saturday, December 6 @ 8:30 pm after panel – stay tuned for more details to be posted on our blog and on twitter under “#adtsg”

ADTSG on Twitter! Make sure to follow us on twitter for updates about ADTSG related activities and other matters of interest to the Anthropology of Drugs:

 

ADHS conference call for papers

Call for Papers: Borders, Boundaries & Contexts: Defining Spaces in the History of Alcohol & Drugs, Alcohol and Drugs History Society

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS EXTENDED TO 30 NOV 2014

Papers and panel proposals are invited for an international conference on the history of alcohol and drugs to be held at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA on June 18-21, 2015. Panel proposals (3 x 20-minute papers) or individual papers (20 minutes) are invited.  We will also consider proposals for fringe sessions using non-conventional formats e.g. screenings, debates, demonstrations etc.

Borders, Boundaries and Contexts seeks to break down barriers in the historical study of drugs and alcohol, encouraging transnational approaches and methodologies that transcend the singular focus on alcohol or drugs. The Program Committee invites proposals for individual papers and complete panels exploring how:

  • spaces, boundaries and borders – physical, legal, chronological, psychological, or ideological – have influenced the history of alcohol and drugs;
  • contexts, spatial or otherwise, have shaped the production, consumption, imagination, or regulation of alcohol and drugs;
  • particular “spaces” have defined eras, episodes, or issues in the history of alcohol and drugs.

Proposals from advanced graduate students and recent PhDs are particularly welcome, as are submissions on topics beyond North American and Europe, along with papers and panels that focus on periods before the modern era.

For more information: http://alcoholanddrugshistorysociety.org/2014/11/07/deadline-extension-adhs-conference/

From Juliet Lee

ADTSG at 2014 SFAA meetings in Albuquerque

2014logoSfAA is happening soon in New Mexico, and ADTSG will be there! The theme of the 2014 meeting is “Destinations.” The following are some highlights of presentations on alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. For full listings, check out the final program.

ADTSG Business Meeting
Thursday March 20 @ 7:00-8:00pm in Alvarado B
We will be talking about ongoing projects as well as finalizing plans for AAA 2014 in D.C. Please invite your students and colleagues to attend. We will also plan on going out afterward for food/drinks – information about the location will be posted on the site and on twitter under  #ADTSG.

ADTSG PANEL: Silk Roads: Place and Space in Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use (SMA)
Wednesday March 19 @ 3:30-5:20pm in Alvarado F (W-126)

  1. Shared Walls, Shared Air: Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing Policy Implementation” –Roland Moore, Valerie Yerger, Robynn Battle, Julie Jackson, LaTrena Robinson
  2. Sin Cities of the North: Alcohol in the Regional Hubs of Alaska” – Kristen Oglivie
  3. #Adderall: Constructions of Prescription Drug Use in Digital Spaces” – Tazin Karim
  4. Negotiating Risk, Supplementing Safety: Online Discussions about Pre-and Post-loading on bluelight.ru” – Stephan Risi
  5. Spice: A Thrice-told Tale” – Juliet Lee
  6. Disussant – Jean Schensul

PANEL: Ethnographic Approaches to Addictions and Substance Abuse
Wednesday March 19 @ 5:30-7:20pm in Turquoise (W-162)

  1.  “Assessing Consequences of Hidden Addictions: Ethnography as Core Method” – Joseph Westermeyer
  2. Pathways to Addiction: Drug Use among Adolescents in Popayan, Colombia” – Sarah Fishleder and Daniel Lende
  3. Implementing T4 Translational Science in a Tobacco Control Project in Ladakh, India” – Lukas Slipski, Anisha Gundewar, and Lily Martyn
  4. Changing Gender Roles for Young Adult Women in Ladakh and Heightened Risk for Tobacco Addiction” – Yitong Gao, Emma Caldwell, Karishma Dara, Anupa Gewali and Cindi Lewis
  5. State Policies and Street Drug Choices: Patterns of Opioid Use in the Aftermath of Changes in OxyContin Availability” – J. Bryan Page and David Forrest
  6. “Under the Influence and Under Arrest: How Alcohol, Drugs, and Violence Impact Arrests on a College Campus” – Richard Colon and Alexandra Itri
  7. Smoking, Chewing, and Dipping: Tobacco Use at a Rural Serving U.S.-Mexico Border University” – Chris Spurny, Melinda J. Wilson, Candyce Luna, Susan Wilson and Cynthia kratze

Presentations on Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Issues

  • Destination Local: Collaborating with Ukrainian NGOs to Develop Effective, Evidence-Based HIV Prevention Programs for Drug Users” – Sarah Phillips, Jill Owczarak, and Olga Filippova (W-67)
  • Urban Ethnic Segregation and the US Heroin Market: A Quantitative Model of Anthropological Hypotheses ” – Dan Ciccarone, Philippe Bourgois, Fernando Montero Castrillo, George Karandinos, Daniel Rosenblum, and Sarah Mars (W-71)
  • A Summer Participatory Research Project for Asian American and Pacific Islander Students: Experience of Stress and Drug Use” – JiangHong Li, Irene Shaver, Jennifer Zhu, Darius Mostaghimi, Angel Wu and Victoria Xie (W-160)
  • Algorithms and Ethnography: Locating the Content of Agent-based Models in Fieldwork” – Lee Hoffer (TH-03)
  • “Drug and Alcohol Treatment Programs for American Indian Youth: Prioritizing Culture & Community Values” – Kehli Henry (poster)
  • Mothers, Lovers, and Addicts: The Role of Interpersonal Violence in Incarcerated Women’s Paths To Recovery” – Catherine Fuentes (Th-131)
  • Can You Help Us Stop Using Drugs?: Collaborating with an NGO in Health Education and Research with People Who Inject Drugs in Kenya” – Jennifer Syversten (F-71)
  • Constructing Harm Reduction as Global “Strategy”: Impacts on Intervention” – Shana Harris (S-126)

Presentations by ADTSG members and colleagues

  • Catie Willging (T-01) Developing a Peer-Based Mental Health Intervention for Sexual and Gender Minorities in Rural New Mexico and T-153 Behavioral Healthcare in New Mexico: Where Are We Now? Where Are We Going?
  • Kitty Corbett (W-02) Technology as a Conduit: Engaging Place and Environment in Experiences of Health [SMA])
  • Peter Kunstadter (T-91) From Community to Academia and Return: Pipelines Run in Both Directions to Reduce Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in the Health Professions)
  • Michael Agar (T-95) Water Sharing and Water Shortage in New Mexico)
  • Suzanne Heurtin-Roberts (F-11) and Applying Anthropology in Implementation Science to Improve Healthcare and Health)
  • Victor Garcia (F-31) Applied Anthropology, Praxis, and Student Research)
  • Linda Bennett (S-04) Evaluating the Effectiveness of COPAA and CoPAPIA Tenure and Promotion Initiatives on Applied, Practicing, Engaged, and Public Anthropology).

Did we miss your panel? Think someone should be added to the list? Send us an email at adtstudygroup@gmail.com and we’ll update the list. Until then… see you in the land of enchantment!

Juliet Lee and Taz Karim

CFP: Professional Perspectives in the Anthropology of Drugs

CALL FOR PAPERS
Panel at 2014 AAA Conference — December 3-7 in Washington, D.C.
Professional Perspectives in the Anthropology of Drugs

Organizers:
Shana Harris (National Development and Research Institutes) – shana.lisa.harris@gmail.com
Tazin Karim (Michigan State University) – karimtaz@msu.edu

Research in the anthropology of drugs has focused on the users or consumers of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances.  Such analyses have produced volumes on the experience of drug use — practices, behaviors, transactions, and relationships — from the perspective of the drug user.  Often as responses to critical circumstances, these studies have illuminated the intricacies of major health epidemics, drug distribution and redistribution, and other drug-related phenomena.  They have made important contributions to drug treatment, prevention, policy, and the general advancement of knowledge. The impact of this work is and continues to be unquestionable, both academically and practically.  Nevertheless, this literature has historically overshadowed the equally valuable and often underrepresented experiences of those who provide care and treatment, implement prevention interventions, and campaign for drug policy reform.  Accordingly, we ask: Where are the perspectives of professionals in the anthropology of drugs?

This panel addresses this dearth in the anthropology of drugs by taking professionals as its analytic focus.  It examines the role of these individuals in attending to and — in some cases — contributing to drug use, abuse, policy, and related issues.  Such professionals work in a variety of contexts, including clinics, pharmacies, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the streets. They are purveyors of services, sources of substances, architects of policies and laws, and producers of knowledge.  Drawing on research from both the global north and the global south, panelists present research that draws critical attention to the central position that professionals play in drug worlds.  Not only do they challenge the marginal positionality of the professional in drug studies, they illustrate the importance of turning our ethnographic gaze to those on the delivery rather than receiving end of interventions, care, and policies.  By paying attention to the work of these professionals, we as anthropologists can enrich our understanding of all things drugs.  Thus, this panel seeks to contribute to a more complete — and even a more productive — anthropology of drugs.

We invite abstracts for papers that ethnographically explore the perspectives, experiences, behaviors, and role of professionals in contexts of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use, abuse, treatment, intervention, and policy.  Please submit an abstract (250 words max.) to the panel organizers by SUNDAY, MARCH 23, for consideration.