Symposium on Drugs, Politics and Society in the Global South (360G-Wellcome-202095_Z_16_Z)

The two-day symposium intends to tackle the issue of illicit drugs through an interdisciplinary, multi-sited approach, which is also peculiar to the tradition of St Antony’s College and the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford. The objective is to bring together scholars whose interest in drug politics, sensu lato, and area expertise can contribute to triggering meaningful comparative debate. By focusing on several themes in two days, this would allow a comprehensive discussion of major aspects of drug policy around the world. One major contribution of this symposium would be to discuss the issue of drugs in those regions, which have often been left out of the international drug policy debate. Apart from scholars working on Latin American drug politics, the events will include participation of scholars working on the Middle East, Russia, Africa and China. This would fit the area studies vision that is peculiar to the hosting college, St Antony’s, which is known to have a strong international perspective. Similarly, it will allow reserachers from the Department of Politics and International Relations to attend and participate in the event, thus injecting new analytical and investigative input into the ongoing themes of research existing in Oxford.