A large interdisciplinary network is aiming to shed light on the practices, rituals and attitudes surrounding intoxication.
A large interdisciplinary network is aiming to shed light on the practices, rituals and attitudes surrounding intoxication.
Because the problem of intoxication is trans-historical and trans-cultural, we can arrive at a better appreciation of this preoccupation through historical and anthropological comparison.
Dr Phil Withington
Dr Phil Withington from the Faculty of History has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to explore the historical and cultural perspectives of intoxication and intoxicants. ‘Intoxication is a subject that attracts significant contemporary public attention – whether it’s debates over licensing and ‘binge drinking’, or the categorisation and policing of addictive substances,’ said Dr Withington. ‘Because the problem of intoxication is trans-historical and trans-cultural, we can arrive at a better appreciation of this preoccupation through historical and anthropological comparison.’
One strand of his research has been the formation of an interdisciplinary network to consider questions relating to the consumption of intoxicants of all kinds. Currently numbering over 50 individuals from 27 different institutions, the network includes Cambridge researchers Dr Victoria Harris, Dr Sarah Howard and Dr Craig Muldrew in the Faculty of History, and Dr Rebecca Flemming in the Faculty of Classics. Five members of the network, including Dr Withington, were recently asked to submit reports to a Parliamentary Health Committee considering the problem of alcohol.
Dr Withington convenes the network with Dr Angela McShane at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Network participants will share perspectives through a series of workshops at the V&A, a conference in Cambridge and an edited volume of essays.
‘Intoxicants and intoxication is a topic that is proving increasingly important both as a subject in its own right and as a means of thinking about wider social identities, practices and processes in a range of historical and cultural contexts,’ said Dr Withington. ‘My own research, for instance, looks at the notion that the expansion in the market for intoxicants was a defining feature of early modernity. As such, intoxicants can be understood as one of the key drivers of social change in modern history.’
If you are interested in joining the Intoxicants and Intoxication in Historical and Cultural Perspective Network, please contact Dr Phil Withington (pjw1003@cam.ac.uk).
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