Hosted by the Humanities Center and graduate fellow CE Mackenzie. Respondents include Julie Beaulieu (GSWS) and Shalini Puri (English). This event will be hybrid, so you can attend it either in person in 602 CL or via Zoom as you prefer

The colloquium will focus on discussion of the pre-circulated paper, "Wonder Drug: Needle Exchange as a Site of Care, Connection, and Renewal," which is available here. Please review this document prior to the event. 

My writing is grounded in outreach with Prevention Point Pittsburgh (PPP) and their needle exchange program. While scholarship on the U.S. opioid epidemic is pursued within public health and social work sectors, I integrate affect studies to encourage a deeper approach to addiction, one that resists capitalistic constructions of the body that demand “productive" outcomes and profitable futures. My aim is to rethink precarity within the vibrant space of needle exchange by analyzing wonder as an overlooked affect that privileges agency. At PPP, I explore how participant-centered methods of advocacy—such as Naloxone training and unconditional care services—nurture this agency.