The Social History and Future of Psychedelic Medicine

Discourse on psychedelics tends to frame “medicalization” as a singular category to be pitted against other kinds of drug use. But medicine is itself a fragmented field, with power imbalances that elevate particular kinds of knowledge and treatment above others.
Journalists and will moderate a conversation with sociologists and about the social history, and future, of psychedelic medicines. Sociology is the study of social life; sociologists like Kempner and Campbell look at how people interact within different social groups, societies, and organizations. In Kempner’s forthcoming book, Psychedelic Outlaws, she tells the story of the “Clusterbusters,” a citizen-science effort to develop psychedelic treatment protocols for debilitating cluster headaches, and more broadly, the politics and epistemologies of psychedelic medicine. Campbell’s work probes the social and legal construction of drug cultures, from the opioid crisis to psychedelics, tracing their evolution through time.
With anthropologist Nick Langlitz, we’ll discuss how sociology can reveal the diversity of impacts that psychedelics may have on the production of knowledge, ethics, and culture at large.
This is the second in a series on the psychedelic humanities hosted by Shayla and Oshan, in collaboration with The New School’s Psychedelic Humanities Lab, led by Nick. The psychedelic humanities incorporate fields from anthropology to linguistics, bringing an interdisciplinary lens to the study of psychedelic drugs. The next event will take place on May 16th, in conversation with D. F. Oostveen on mysticism and psychedelics.

Nancy Campbell is the head of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Science and Technology Studies. She is a historian of science, technology, and medicine who focuses on legal and illegal drugs, drug science, policy, and treatment, harm reduction, and gender and addiction. Her most recent book is OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose (MIT Press, 2020).

Joanna Kempner, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University, is an award-winning sociologist of science, medicine, technology, and inequality, and the author of Psychedelic Outlaws: The Movement Revolutionizing Modern Medicine (Hachette, 2024) and Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health (Chicago, 2014).

Shayla Love is a science journalist based in Brooklyn, and a staff writer at Psyche and The Guardian. She writes primarily about science, health, and psychology, and she is interested in the moments when history, culture, and philosophy interact with present day research. She has a master's degree in science journalism from Columbia University, and her work has also appeared in The New Yorker, Scientific American, Vice, The New Republic, Harper's, Wired, and more.

Oshan Jarow is a staff writer with Future Perfect at Vox, where he covers political economy and consciousness studies. His interests range from guaranteed income and shorter workweeks to advanced meditation and psychedelics, tracing the relationships between social theory and philosophy of mind. In former lives, he co-founded the Library of Economic Possibility, helped open a fine dining restaurant in New York's Hudson Valley, and received a bachelor's degree in economics and philosophy.

Event Venue

222 E 46th St, 222 East 46th Street, New York, United States