Contemporary Drug Problems Conference – Boundaries, Borders, Binaries and Barriers

Contemporary Drug Problems Conference – Boundaries, Borders, Binaries and Barriers

Manchester, 27-29 August 2025

Submissions for papers for the 2025 Contemporary Drug Problems Conference are now open.

The 2025 CDP conference explores the boundaries, borders, binaries, and barriers that shape drug use, law, and societal perspectives. It invites interdisciplinary approaches, questioning distinctions between licit and illicit, human and non-human, control and compulsion, and more. Drawing from feminist theory, narcofeminism, Indigenous knowledge, and decolonising methodologies, the conference encourages critical reflections on drug law reform and new ways of thinking about drugs and their effects. Presentations will challenge and reconsider the boundaries that structure how we understand and engage with drugs in contemporary and historical contexts.

Hosted by Contemporary Drug Problems, the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University (Australia); the Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney (Australia); the Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Manchester (England); the Advanced School for Social Sciences (EHESS) (France); the Behaviours and Health Risks Program, Burnet Institute (Australia); Turning Point, Monash University (Australia); the Department of Science and Technology Studies , Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA), and the Department of Social Work, Stockholm University (Sweden), this conference will bring together leading international researchers in drug use and addiction studies from a range of research disciplines and methods – both qualitative and quantitative.