In Praise of Addiction: Elizabeth Roberts in conversation with Danya Fast

Join Massy Books and Princeton University Press, for a conversation between Danya Fast and Elizabeth Roberts on "In Priase of Addiction: Or How We Can Learn to Love Dependency in a Damaged World — a transformative way of understanding addiction, and an invitation to find connection in the pleasures of life we know are bad for us. Registration is required and is expected to fill up quickly, so make sure to get your tickets soon!

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The venue has a gender neutral bathroom.

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Covid Protocols: Masks are mandatory, and we'll have masks available. We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.

The Book:

In Praise of Addiction shares the unexpected journey that led Roberts to a new understanding of addiction. Taking lessons from her years in Mexico City as well as from addiction researchers, harm reduction activists, and scholars of religion, philosophy, and anthropology, Roberts pays close attention to the external forces that so often fuel the damage of addiction. As her neighbors in Mexico City suggest, the adverse health effects brought on by their dependencies on Coca-Cola, processed foods, drugs, and alcohol have more to do with the ongoing effects of the drug war and NAFTA than any personal failings. Taking up this ecological framework, Roberts draws a line between vice that isolates and addiction that connects, a distinction she movingly integrates into her own life and family, making a case for sharing in the pleasures—and suffering—of dependency.

Author:

Elizabeth F. S. Roberts is professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and the author of God’s Laboratory: Assisted Reproduction in the Andes. Since 2013, she has participated in collaborative environmental health research in Mexico City.

Moderator:

Danya Fast is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she co-leads UBC’s Youth Overdose Prevention Research Excellence Cluster. Her research examines young people’s drug use, care, and institutional trajectories in the context of successive waves of public health emergency, including ongoing housing and overdose crises. She uses applied and community-based participatory methods to create research in partnership with young people to drive change. Danya is the author of the book and producer of the award-winning short film series.

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