Announcing an amazing opportunity for a 3-year vacancy as a Ph.D. Research Fellow! This is part of the project “Human Rights in Opioid Substitution Treatment” at VID Specialized University in Oslo, Norway, with funding provided by the Foundation Dam. The Fellow will be included in the research group Human Rights and Social Harms (HUMANHARM).

Required qualifications and skills:

1. Master’s degree in anthropology, law, sociology of law, social work or another relevant discipline

2. The grade on the master’s thesis and the weighted average grade for the master’s degree must normally both amount to at least a B in order to be considered

3. Experience with qualitative methods, preferably semi-structured interviews and/or textual analysis

4. Excellent written and oral presentation skills in English and a basic knowledge Norwegian (Scandinavian) is needed to undertake data collection

5. Ability to work purposefully and independently

Application deadline: 21 January 2023            

Start date: 1 June 2023 or by specific agreement

Applicants who would like more information about the position can contact Dr. Aleksandra Bartoszko by email: aleksandra.bartoszko@vid.no.

For more information and to apply for the position: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/237010/phd-research-fellow-in-human-rights-in-opioid-substitution-treatment

Thank you to all ADTSG members who attended our annual business meeting this year at the AAA conference in Seattle. For those of you who couldn’t attend here is a brief summary of what was discussed at the meeting:

1. Awards: In the future, we will be working to advertise our awards more broadly, as we have noticed that we have had fewer and fewer submissions over the past couple of years. We are also considering raising the award amount from $100 to $150 and awarding our student and contingent faculty awards on alternating years. This will mean that we can give out more money and potentially increase interest in the awards with each award cycle.

2. Public Scholarship: Our members and our board are considering ways that ADTSG can produce more public scholarship. We are hoping that we may be able to submit pieces to the SMA’s publication Second Opinion, Anthropology News, or The Conversation sometime in the next year.

3. Writing and Reading Groups: We had quite a few members express interest in participating in writing or reading groups. We will reach out in the new year to members to discuss what we want these groups to look like (i.e., how often we will meet, group expectations, lists of readings). If you are interested in joining either of these groups, please email Breanne Casper at casperb@usf.edu.

Spring Workshop: We will be exploring the idea of putting together some type of workshop in the spring for ADTSG members and SMA members more broadly. At the business meeting we discussed potentially having a sort of workshop or mini-conference day on psychedelics. If you have other thoughts or input, please feel free to reach out.

Thank you again to all who were at the meeting, and we’re sorry to have missed anyone that was unable to make it. For any questions or suggestions please reach out to Breanne Casper at casperb@usf.edu. Please also do not forget to submit your students for the ADTSG Student Spotlight!

We are less than one week away from the 2022 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington!

There are several panels that may be of particular interest to ADTSG members, many of which involve our members!  And don’t forget to come to the ADTSG Business Meeting on Thursday, November 10, at 12:15pm – 1:45pm at the Seattle Convention Center 304.  All are welcome!

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9

2:15pm – 4:00pm (SCC 304)

Triggers, Trauma, and Treatment: Unsettling Landscapes of Care

Participants: Daniel Lende, Rebecca Lester, William Lucas, Ellen Kozelka, Michael Oldani

4:30pm – 6:15pm (Virtual Room 4)

The Price of Diagnosis: Negotiating Value in Social Psychiatry

Participants: Selim Gokce Atici, Junko Kitanaka, Stefan Ecks, Zhiying Ma, Eugene Raikhel, Tanya Marie Luhrmann, Yuto Kano, Ramsey Ismail

4:30pm – 6:15pm (SCC 204)

What’s Next?: Researching And Representing The Unravelling of Everything

Participants: Danya Fast, Arianna Injeian, Daniel Manson, Eileen Moyer

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10

10:15am – 12:00pm (SCC 4C-3)

The Traffic of Trauma: Critical Engagements with Harris Solomon’s Lifelines

Participants: Angela Garcia, Tanya Marie Luhrmann, Sameena Mulla, Rashmi Sadana, Dwaipayan Banerjee, Omar Dewachi, Harris Solomon

6:30pm – 8:15pm (SCC 613/614)

Prep in Practice: Unsettling Landscapes of HIV Prevention

Participants: Bradley Stoner, Shanti Parikh, Marlon Bailey, Matthew Thomann, Tankut Atuk, Julien Brisson, Daryl Mangosing

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11

8:00am – 9:45am (SCC 607)

Women and Drug Use in a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Participants: Shana Harris, Jennifer Syvertsen, Emery Eaves, Mãdãlina Alamã, Tiffany Alvarez, Sugandh Gupta, Casey Roulette, Drake Rinks

2:00pm – 3:45pm (SCC 204)

The Para-Professionalization of Lived Experience: Peer Support in Public and Private Mental Health

Participants: Neely Myers, Gerpha Gerlin, Lauren Cubellis, Ippolytos Kalofonos, Luke Kernan, Melinda Gonzalez, Erica Fletcher

5:00pm – 6:45pm (SCC 3B)

Health Institutions, Governance, and Regulation

Participants: Johanna Crane, M. Cameron Hay, Kaelin Rapport

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12

8:00am – 9:45am (SCC 611)

Therapeutic Landscapes: The (Un)Making of Clinical and Healing Spaces (Part One)

Participants: Jessica Reid, William Robertson, Steph Jacobs, Joyce Lu, Mac Skelton, Caroline Hodge, K. Eliza Williamson

8:00am – 9:45am (SCC 3B)

Culture and Power in Prescribing and Medicating

Participants: Lee Brando, Naomi Zucker, Rogelio Scott Insua, Malia Piazza

10:15am – 12:00pm (SCC 3B)

Therapeutic Landscapes: The (Un)Making of Clinical and Healing Spaces (Part Two)

Participants: Jessica Reid, William Robertson, Ramsha Usman, Megan Raschig, Ray Qu, Barclay Bram, Sophea Seng, Emilia Guevara

4:15pm – 6:00pm (SCC 607)

Chemical Aesthetics

Participants: Alison Feser, Richard del Rio, Ella Butler, Nicholas Shapiro

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13

8:00am – 9:45am (SCC 615)

Doing (In)Formal Business: Exchanges Between Business Anthropology and Anthropological Criminology

Participants: Trine Mygind Korsby, Simon Lex, Henrik Vigh, Timothy de Waal Malefyt, Anja Simonsen, Camilla Ida Ravnbøl

10:15am – 12:00pm (SCC 211)

Unsettling the Health and Safety Landscapes of Crisis Responses Programs in the U.S.

Participants: Jennifer Carroll, Mark Fleming, Joseph Richardson, Neely Myers, Katherine Beckett

12:15pm – 1:45pm (SCC 615)

Unsettling Pretexts of Protection: Paternalism, Depoliticization, and Oppression in the Name of Care

Participants: Gerardo Rodriguez Solis, Caitlin Fouratt, Margaret Wehrer, Marta Zavaleta

Coming to the 2022 American Anthropological Association conference in Seattle? Join us at the Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Study Group Business Meeting!

The meeting will be on Thursday, November 10, from 12:15pm-1:45pm in SCC 304 at the Washington State Convention Center. The meeting is open to all!

Looking forward to seeing everyone next week in Seattle!

Here is the latest installment of ADTSG’s student profiles feature!

These profiles are a way for the ADTSG membership to become acquainted with the next generation of anthropologists of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco.  In this vein, each profile will introduce one graduate or undergraduate student to the group by asking them a series of questions related to their background and career aspirations in this field.

In this installment, we are profiling Yewande O. Addie, a recent graduate of the Ph.D. program at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and a current health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Population Health.

Why did you choose to use anthropological theory and methods in your research?

Because of the type of research I’m interested in, I actually took an interdisciplinary approach to my methods and theory. My dissertation study is anchored by framing theory and Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. Although framing theory is a foundational sociological theory, it is pretty commonly used in communication research to explore how subject matters are discussed in media. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions is a cross-cultural communications framework designed to help people understand and examine national values, cultures and behaviors. 

Regarding my methods, I made the choice to center Nigerian media as the primary source for my dissertation research, and I had the luxury of being able to conduct my analysis in Nigeria with the support of a U.S. Fulbright grant. I feel fortunate that I was able to more closely experience the culture and people of Nigeria in an ethnographic capacity. Spending eight months researching, teaching, and writing in Nigeria really enriched my findings and expanded my scholarly perspective. To anyone seriously considering an international education experience, I’d highly recommend it. 

Why are you interested in alcohol, drugs, and tobacco research?

Well they say research is actually “me-search.” A lot of times our research is an extension of our life experiences and observations. My father was a smoker and passed away from small cell lung cancer. My grandfather was a smoker and a drinker that died from a related pulmonary disease. One of my elder brothers had an accidental opioid overdose. Two of my favorite artists, Prince and Michael K. Williams, both died after consuming opioids laced with an even stronger synthetic opioid, fentanyl.  In hindsight, I don’t think I was super intentional about explicitly wanting to do substance use research. But in some ways I can’t help but think of my work as a tribute to the loved ones I’ve lost, who struggled with addictions to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. 

What are your future plans for studying alcohol, drugs, and tobacco?

I’d like to continue doing related interdisciplinary research that draws connections between culture, health, and substance use among other health inequities. I also want the research I do to inform policies that help reduce and prevent substance misuse/abuse. 

Where do you hope to take your career following your dissertation defense?

Prior to finishing my doctoral program, I studied and earned degrees in journalism, history, and public health, so I consider myself a very interdisciplinary communication scholar. In the field of journalism, journalists use storytelling as a way of reporting information to the public. History is all about telling stories as a way of remembering the past. And storytelling is an essential function for public health practitioners that collect and develop health narratives. My hope is that I can continue building a career that affords me the opportunity to strategically use storytelling and narratives in my research and as a modality for healing and social change.

If you are an anthropology student and would like to be profiled for the ADTSG website, please contact ADTSG’s Chair, Breanne Casper, at casperb@usf.edu for more information! 

Don’t forget that the ADTSG Awards applications are due on August 15!! This year we are giving out three awards: Graduate Student Travel Award, Graduate Student Paper Prize, and Contingent Faculty Travel Award.

For more information about the awards:

ADTSG 2022 Graduate Student Travel Award

ADTSG 2022 Graduate Student Paper Prize

ADTSG 2022 Contingent Faculty Travel Award

We look forward to your submissions!

Here is the latest installment of ADTSG’s student profiles feature!

These profiles are a way for the ADTSG membership to become acquainted with the next generation of anthropologists of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco.  In this vein, each profile will introduce one graduate or undergraduate student to the group by asking them a series of questions related to their background and career aspirations in this field.

In this installment, we are profiling Jorge Mancillas, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Why did you choose to use anthropological theory and methods in your research?

The anthropological approach of ethnography was the best way to descriptively and theoretically broach topics that involve communities and individuals I’ve been close to most of my life. I turned to the anthropological literature to negotiate with the “insider/outsider” dilemma, how one’s positionality as an ethnographer as an “insider” or “outsider—or a combination of both—affects the research process. In social science the research process is ostensibly unbiased and apolitical, but the research question is not, so that is why I chose to follow methodological principles from anthropologists such as Diego Vigil, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, and Philippe Bourgois among many others who study urban violence, substance use, incarceration, and so on, and address their positionality in relation to the participants and community they’re studying and the impact of their research.

Why are you interested in alcohol, drugs, and tobacco research?

Right now, my research is focused on trauma in relation to gangs, and alcohol, drugs and tobacco are part of their larger obdurate context—there is a liquor store on almost every corner of the neighborhoods where there are gangs. The research on alcohol, drugs, and tobacco shows that substance use disorders disproportionately affect low-income communities of color, so I’m interested in building on existing research to study the ways in which alcohol, drugs, and tobacco are used as a form of self-medication amongst gang members to cope with traumatic loss.

What are your research plans for studying alcohol, drugs, and tobacco?

Rehabilitation programs are not as accessible as alcohol, drugs, and tobacco are in low-income communities of color, so my future research plans are to foreground this disparity and advocate for policy that is constructive rather than criminalizing. Policy has more often criminalized addiction and catalyzed cycles of incarceration that ultimately decimated the communities that the policies purport to support. This is most obvious if one looks at the legacy of the “war on drugs”. Any future research I plan to do must, therefore, include the historical impact of the criminalization of addiction and substance use disorders in order to influence policy that is beneficial for the communities that are most affected.

What do you hope to do following your dissertation defense?

Sleep. Following that, I hope to stay in academia and do work that allows me to shape public policy discourse on the issues I care about.

If you are an anthropology student and would like to be profiled for the ADTSG website, please contact ADTSG’s Chair, Breanne Casper, at casperb@usf.edu for more information!

The Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Study Group (ADTSG) of the Society for Medical Anthropology invites applications for a travel award to attend the 2022 AAA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington. An award of $100 will be given to a contingent faculty member (adjunct, instructor, postdoc, or similar non-tenure positions) presenting a paper at the conference that engages questions related to alcohol, drugs, tobacco, or other psychoactive substance use. This is ADTSG’s Contingent Faculty Travel Award, to be offered once every two years. The award will be rewarded on a competitive basis and reviewed by a committee comprised of ADTSG members.

QUALIFYING CRITERIA

• Applicant must be a contingent faculty member (adjunct, instructor, post-doc, or similar non-tenure position)
• Applicant must be presenting a paper at the 2022 AAA Annual Meeting (this award is open to both online and in-person attendees)
• Applicant must be a member of the Society for Medical Anthropology (see http://americananthro.org for instructions on how to join)

SUBMISSION PROCESS

• Submit your paper abstract, university affiliation, position, and contact information (no additional materials are required) to Breanne Casper, Chair of ADTSG, at casperb@usf.edu
• Applications must be received by 5:00PM EST on August 15, 2022, for full consideration.

Questions may be directed to Breanne Casper at the above email address. We look forward to your submissions!

The Alcohol, Drug, and Tobacco Study Group (ADTSG) of the Society for Medical Anthropology invites submissions for the best graduate student paper in the anthropology of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, or other psychoactive substance use. A committee of ADTSG members will judge qualifying submissions. The author of the winning paper will receive a cash award of $100, and their name will be announced at the Society for Medical Anthropology awards ceremony at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in November 2022. Submissions from all anthropological sub-disciplines are encouraged.

QUALIFYING CRITERIA

• No more than 9,000 words (including references and notes)
• Must be based on original fieldwork and data
• Must have been written in the past 12 months
• Primary or first author must be a graduate student at the time of submission
• May be unpublished or submitted for publication at the time of submission

JUDGING CRITERIA

• Originality of fieldwork and data
• Richness of substantive or evidentiary materials
• Clarity of anthropological methods
• Linkage of work to social science literature
• Effective use of theory and data
• Organization, quality of writing, and coherence of argument

SUBMISSION PROCESS

• Please do not include your name or any identifying information in the paper itself.
• Papers must be double spaced and in PDF format (please include page numbers).
• References and in-text citations should be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
• Please submit via email to Breanne Casper, Chair of ADTSG, at casperb@usf.edu.
• Submissions must be received by 5:00PM EST on August 15, 2022, for full consideration.

Questions may be directed to Breanne Casper at the above email address. We look forward to your submissions!

The Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Study Group (ADTSG) of the Society for Medical Anthropology invites applications for a travel award to attend the 2022 AAA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington.  An award of $100 will be given to a graduate student presenting a paper at the conference that engages questions related to alcohol, drugs, tobacco, or other psychoactive substance use.  The ADTSG Graduate Student Travel Award is awarded annually on a competitive basis and reviewed by a committee comprised of ADTSG members.

QUALIFYING CRITERIA

• Applicant must be currently enrolled in a graduate program
• Applicant must be presenting a paper at the 2022 AAA Annual Meeting (this award is open to both online and in-person attendees)
• Applicant must be a member of the Society for Medical Anthropology (see http://americananthro.org for instructions on how to join)

SUBMISSION PROCESS

• Submit your paper abstract, university affiliation, graduate program (M.A. or Ph.D.), and contact information (no additional materials are required) to Breanne Casper, Chair of ADTSG, at casperb@usf.edu.
• Applications must be received by 5:00PM EST on August 15, 2022, for full consideration.

Questions may be directed to Breanne Casper at the above email address. We look forward to your submissions!