Call for papers
August 4 & 5, 2027
University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario Canada
Sociologists have long been interested in the phenomenon of “maturing out” out of alcohol and drug use. Yet recent data suggests that the history of drug and alcohol use over the life course is more complicated than people becoming more moderate or abstinent as they age. People often use the drugs of their youth into older ages, even if the ways in which they use these drugs changes over time. This is particularly true of alcohol, a drug whose legal status in most countries means that some of the important incentives for quitting or reducing use are absent. By contrast, there are legions of ex-smokers in most Western countries today. There are interesting questions to be asked about how the use of legal psychotropics such as SSRI’s, tranquillizers and amphetamines changes over the life course. We are interested in how changing patterns of use are impacted by race, ethnicity, gender, and class – including differential access to prescription pharmaceuticals, different understandings of pain and disability, and the question of affordability. This workshop will examine the historical use of psychotropic substances, including studies of children, youth, young adults, middle-aged adults and the elderly. Histories from all parts of the world are welcome. While the focus of the conference will be on historical approaches to age, alcohol and drugs, applications from non-historians working on historical topics are welcome.
The papers at this conference will be considered for a special issue of the Social History of Alcohol and Drugs.
Potential questions include:
- How have older people inducted younger people into drug use and what lessons have they tried to impart?
- How have societies at different times and places tried to encourage or prohibit the drug use of individuals based on their age through law (such as legal drinking ages), informal prohibitions, or incentives (such as teachers encouraging the use of Ritalin and other drugs)?
- How have the manufacturers of licit and illicit drugs marketed their products to different age groups?
- Often, drug and alcohol use among young people causes the most societal concern, but are there instances in which drinking or drug-taking has been problematized among the elderly or the middle-aged?
- How do the spaces of drinking and drug-using change over the life course and how have the spaces of drinking and drug -taking changed over time?
- How do the experiences and/or motivations for consuming drugs and alcohol change over people’s lifetimes? How do these experiences and motivations differ by race, class, culture and nationality?
This conference will be held in University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada on August 4th & 5th 2027.
Deadline: Abstracts (350 words maximum) and short CVs (2 page maximum) are required by December 15th to ccarstai@uoguelph.ca
Contact Email
ccarstai@uoguelph.ca
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