Drugs, Society, and Self
In this course, students will explore changing relationships between drugs and society, covering a broad range of topics including roles of race and gender; shifting philosophical, psychological and legal notions of the mind/body relationship and addiction; roles of drugs in social movements and the 'politics of pleasure'; cross-cultural and transnational conflicts surrounding marijuana and cocaine; the proliferation of psychiatric drugs; shifting attitudes towards tobacco and alcohol; the rise of the pharmaceutical industry and clinical trials; patient activism; U.S. drug enforcement laws and FDA legislation; strategic uses of neuroscience and epidemiology in social and political debates over drug regulation; and representations of drug-taking in popular culture. Many of the case studies will focus on the 20th & 21st-century United States, but students are encouraged to draw from international and cross-cultural perspectives, both within class discussions and for their research projects.