CFP AAA 2017: The Face of the American Opioid Crisis

Call for Papers – AAA 2017

The Face of the American Opioid Crisis

Katie Rynkiewich, Trish Urdzik, and Shannon Satterwhite
(on behalf of the Research on U.S. Health and Healthcare Special Interest Group)

High-profile celebrity deaths from opioid use and the recent authorization of over $900 million for opioid prevention from the United States Congress have demonstrated that the opioid crisis and its effects are becoming increasingly evident. From studies of opioid use by women who are pregnant (Knight 2015) to critical work on race-based disparities in addiction treatment (Hansen 2015), the opioid crisis spans issues of gender, race, and the economy. With this panel, we intend to create a space for narratives of addiction and responses to the structural and cultural conditions within which the epidemic has emerged.

This panel invites papers from anthropologists working on U.S.-based projects focused on opioids in the United States. We are interested, in particular, on ethnographic research contributing to the following types of questions:
-What types of individuals and groups are caught up in the opioid epidemic?
-What are the consequences of current policy on opioid use and prescribing?
-What parallels can be drawn with other forms of drug use in the United States?
-How is the opioid crisis being covered in the American media?

To submit an abstract for this panel, please use this google form (and click on “The Face of the American Opioid Crisis”) by April 1: https://goo.gl/forms/K5pjm6quNHbL7Nus1