This talk excavates the ways that the US “opioid crisis” of the past two decades came to be seen as white. Based on over a decade of participant observation in the field of addiction medicine, which has evolved in tandem with the marketing of Oxycontin, Professor Hansen reviews several “technologies of whiteness” - neuroscience, new biotechnology development, regulation and marketing - that explain the racial symbolism and demographics of opioids. The talk ends with a glimpse of alternatives to racial capitalism as the foundation for US healthcare.
How to attend:
In-person: Room 1104, Berkeley Way West
Zoom Webinar | Register here (free)
Helena Hansen, an MD, Ph.D. psychiatrist-anthropologist, is Professor and Interim Chair of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and Interim Director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is the author of three books: Addicted to Christ: Remaking Men in Puerto Rican Pentecostal Drug Ministries; Structural Competency in Medicine and Mental Health: A Case-Based Approach to Treating the Social Determinants of Health (with Jonathan Metzl); and Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Heroin in America (with Jules Netherland and David Herzberg). She has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and election to the National Academy of Medicine.
Speaker: Helena Hansen, Professor and Interim Chair of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UC Los Angeles
Sponsored by: Berkeley Center for Social Medicine
Co-sponsored by: Othering and Belonging Institute, UC Berkeley
Berkeley Center for Social Medicine is part of the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues.
Contact Info: bcsm@berkeley.edu, 510-642-0813
Access Coordinator:
Maxwell Vanderwarker, maxwellvan@berkeley.edu, 510-642-0813
