ADTSG is a group for medical anthropologists and other social scientists with research focused on Alcohol, Drugs, or Tobacco to network, share information, and collaborate on potential projects. We typically host a gathering during the SfAA and AAA meeting each year.
Chair: Megan Sarmento, [email protected]
Vice Chair: Zachary Whiteman, [email protected]
Graduate Student Liaison: Abigail Shepherd, [email protected]
General Inquiries/Group Email: [email protected]
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1520777234890158/
Annual prizes/awards: Graduate Student Paper Prize, Graduate Student Travel Award, Contingent Faculty Travel Award ($100 each)
Student Spotlight
ADTSG is proud to highlight the incredible work of undergraduate and graduate students doing research on drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. For the first quarter of 2026, we asked Siobhan Neely, MA student in Anthropology at the University of South Florida, to answer a few questions about her work:
1. How does anthropological theory inform your research on drug overdose and harm reduction?
Anthropological theory helps me treat psychedelics not just as drugs, but as experiences woven into culture, power, and meaning. I draw on interpretive anthropology to understand how people with substance use disorder narrate psychedelic experiences as moments of insight, healing, or “reset.” I also use critical and decolonial perspectives to keep in view the long histories of Indigenous plant medicine and the unequal structures that shape who gets safe, supported access to these substances today. Put simply, anthropology lets me ask not only whether psychedelics “work,” but for whom, in what settings, and according to whose definition of recovery.
2. Why are you interested in drug research?
I’m interested in drug research because it’s personal for me. I’ve lost too many loved ones to overdose, and I see firsthand how criminalization and the War on Drugs have failed people who use drugs. My work is driven by a desire to be part of solutions that treat people with dignity, reduce harm, and support forms of healing that help them feel reconnected to themselves, their communities, and ignite a sense of meaning in their lives.
3. What are your research plans for studying drugs/drug use?
I plan to study how people with substance use disorder are turning to psychedelics as a last resort form of healing, and how those experiences are shaped by context and community rather than chemistry alone. As a medical anthropology student, I’ll be doing qualitative, ethnographic work to understand how people narrate psychedelic experiences as moments of insight, reset, or renewed connection, and how integration circles, retreats, and clinical settings support or undermine that change. Ultimately, my goal is to generate grounded, human centered knowledge that can inform more compassionate, culturally aware approaches to addiction care and harm reduction in the U.S.
4. What do you hope to do after you graduate with your master’s?
I hope to work at the intersection of addiction care and drug policy, helping build more humane, evidence-based responses to substance use. In the near term, that could mean combining my anthropology training with public health or policy work. Longer term, I’m interested in helping develop community-based, culturally informed programs, potentially a nonprofit, that serves people with SUD and can eventually integrate psychedelic-assisted approaches as they become legally and ethically viable.
