This talk will examine how current discourse, clinical interventions, medical technologies, and policy responses to the opioid epidemic are racialized in the U.S., highlighting the role of whiteness and racial capitalism. We will trace how technologies of whiteness operated to respond to rising overdose deaths among whites beginning in the 2000’s, and offer concrete solutions to crafting drug policies that improve the health and wellness of all.

Julie ("Jules") Netherland, PhD, is an emerging leader in the critical study of drugs, medicine, science and addiction. She has published over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, including, "White Opioids: Pharmaceutical Race and The War on Drugs that Wasn’t," (with Helena Hansen), in Biosocieties. She is also the editor of the Critical Perspectives on Addiction (Emerald Press, 2012). She holds a PhD in sociology from The Graduate Center, CUNY, a Masters in Social Work from Boston University, and B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. 

Netherland is the managing director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), where she previously served as the deputy state director for the New York Policy Office. She works on a number of issues, such as helping academics become more effective policy advocates, ensuring DPA's policy work is grounded in research and evidence, and promoting a public health approach to drug policy.

Previously, she served as deputy director of health policy at New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), where she worked on an array of policy and research projects with a specialization in substance use and HIV/AIDS. At NYAM, she also coordinated a multi-site national study looking at the integration of buprenorphine (a pharmaceutical used to treat opioid dependence) into HIV care settings, which resulted in a special supplement on buprenorphine and HIV in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Her current project, with Helena Hansen (UCLA) and David Herzberg (University of Buffalo) is a book entitled Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America (UC Press, 2023), which examines how current media discourse, clinical interventions, medical technologies, and policy responses to the opioid epidemic are racialized. The work highlights sociological research on whiteness in ways that expose the racialization of drug policy as well as the strategic deployment of structural versus individualized understandings of addiction. This work draws on and adds to current debates about pharmaceuticalization, medicalization, colorblind racism, and racial capitalism.

Situated at the intersection of sociology and policy and with a strong track record as a public sociologist, Netherland is deeply interested in how research, scholars, and the academy can shape policy responses to complex social problems. Her hands-on experience working in policy offers a unique vantage point from which to theorize about how policy is created and the role policy plays in shaping both structure and individual actions.

Lunch will be served starting at 11:45am

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