Two internationally-renowned experts on narcotics and substance abuse discussed the resulting public health problem, both locally and globally, from an epidemiological and anthropological perspective on Wednesday, September 16th at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
Sponsored jointly by the Schools of Nursing and Medicine, the Dean’s Lecture, entitled “Crossing Borders: Narcotics & Encounters Across Neighborhoods and Nations,” featured Dr. Philippe Bourgois and Dr. Maria Medina-Mora.
Dr. Medina-Mora is the Chief Director of the Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria Ramon de a Fuente in Mexico City. She advises the Pan-American Health Organization and the World Health Organization. In 2000, she was appointed to the international Narcotics Control Board of the United Nations. Dr. Medina-Mora comes to Penn as a Provost’s Distinguished International Scholar.
Dr. Bourgois is the Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology & Family and Community Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, he has initiated a new, long-term, participant-observation fieldwork project among heroin and cocaine injectors and street sellers in North Philadelphia. Professor Bourgois’ most recent book, Righteous Dopefiend (with Jeff Schonberg) is based upon 12 years of participant-observation research among homeless heroin injectors and crack smokers in San Francisco.