Anthropology Colloquium is the department’s speaker series that invites a mixture of anthropologists from within and outside of UBC to present their research. This speaker series is scheduled throughout the academic year, typically with a lunch reception in the AnSo Lounge.
Reaching Marginalized Populations in the Cultural Shadows
Thursday March 14, 2013
AnSo 134, 11:30-1:30
Dan Small
Medical Council of Canada,
College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and
Department of Anthropology UBC
Abstract:
Dan Small is a medical anthropologist who has been involved designing “low barrier” healthcare and housing projects aimed at reaching vulnerable populations at risk for social and healthcare exclusion including a controversial piece of cultural real estate he co-founded: Vancouver’s supervised injection facility (Insite). It is the only place on the continent where IDUs are encouraged to come off the street to inject illicit drugs under supervision to fight fatal overdoses, HIV, HCV and healthcare exclusion. The presentation will make the case that the Supreme Court of Canada judgment in favour of Insite in 2011 validates the personhood of people with addictions and metaphorically unchains them from the criminal justice system. The session will touch on the moral borderland to which injection drug users have been relegated before exploring more humanistic attempts at reaching people in the cultural shadows with healthcare, housing and humanity.
Bio:
Dr. Small is an Adjunct Professor in Anthropology at UBC and has been involved in Medical Council of Canada since 2007 and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC since 2001 where he has served on the council, executive, quality of medical performance, medical inquiry, discipline and ethics committees.
