Having just completed data collection, SSAC PhD candidate Liz Normand is looking forward to tackling the next phase of her project: data analysis. A qualitative study supervised by Dr Robyn Dwyer and Professor Suzanne Fraser, the project’s key research questions are: How do marginalised young people in contact with alcohol and other drug (AOD) services understand their AOD…
In 2014 Curtin University’s Social Studies of Addiction Concepts (SSAC) research team began work on an innovative project that would underpin Australia’s first dedicated web site presenting personal experiences of people who consider themselves to have an alcohol or other drug addiction, dependence or habit. The groundbreaking Lives of Substance website offers new perspectives on…
After successful data collection in Melbourne, Bendigo, Sydney and Northern Rivers, interviews for the SSAC research project ‘Experiences of addiction, treatment and recovery’ are now complete. The interviews comprise material from 60 participants who consider themselves to have an alcohol or other drug (AOD) habit, dependence or addiction. Commenting on the experience of conducting some of the interviews,…
Dr Kate Seear, adjunct research fellow with SSAC and Senior Lecturer in Law at Monash University, was recently awarded a prestigious DECRA fellowship by the Australian Research Council. The fellowship will support Kate to conduct a major international study on addiction and the law over the next three years (2016-18). Entitled ‘Addiction in the Australian…
What exactly is ‘addiction’ and how do people experience it? How do these experiences shape their understandings of themselves, and how others see them? These are some of the questions informing the development of a new online resource — livesofsubstance.org –presenting personal experiences of AOD addiction or dependence in Australia. In a recent presentation delivered as part of…
Australia is at risk of increases in HIV and hepatitis C transmission, Australian experts believe, as rates of illicit steroid injecting go up. A newly released report documents concern among alcohol and other drug workers and policy makers that Australia does not know enough about the practice and may fail to prevent new blood-borne virus epidemics…
Recent publications from members of the SSAC team cover a range of topics related to projects currently underway in the program. A newly published article lead-authored by Dr Kiran Pienaar analyses the representation of addiction in two major Australian alcohol and other drug-related online resources, and uses feminist and science studies theory to argue that…
Focusing on the Bendigo area of Victoria, the second phase of SSAC’s ARC-funded research on experiences of alcohol and other drug addiction or dependence in Australia has now begun. With a population of 105 332, Bendigo is a major regional centre in Northern Victoria. It has a large service economy and hosts one of La Trobe University’s campuses. The site was chosen for…
Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Associate Professor Suzanne Fraser, leader of the Social Studies of Addiction Concepts (SSAC) program at Australia’s National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) today launched the program’s new logo and website. Speaking from NDRI’s office in Melbourne, Australia, Fraser explained that the SSAC program was designed as a new global initiative to connect addiction…
A team of researchers led by SSAC’s Associate Professor Suzanne Fraser has been awarded $499,000 by the Australian Research Council to conduct research into lived experiences of addiction in Australia. This project, entitled ‘Experiences of addiction, treatment and recovery: An online resource for members of the public, health professionals and policy makers’, is the first…
DruGS 
You must be logged in to post a comment.