Theo di Castri is organising a drugs education exhibition in Cambridge.
As the political philosopher Wendy Brown argues, 'citizens cannot rule themselves…without understanding the powers and problems they are engaging in.' Rethinking Drugs seeks to create spaces of learning that make it possible to understand 'the powers and problems' we engage with when we encounter drugs.
Theo di Castri
A Gates Cambridge Scholar is organising an exhibition in Cambridge which aims to expand drug education to include a greater focus on the history and politics of drugs and drug policy.
Theo di Castri, a Junior Research Fellow at Homerton college is collaborating with filmmaker, writer and educator Lucy Pawlak on the public engagement project, Drugscapes: Are we all users?, which gathers together the work of over 50 media students from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City who collaborated with students at Homerton College, Cambridge, and ReD (Rethinking Drugs) to develop critical and creative takes on the topic of drugs.
A reception for the opening of the exhibition will be held from 7-9pm on 30th May at the Students Union Lounge on the third floor of the University Centre. The exhibition will run until 10th June and can be visited from 9AM-5PM Monday-Friday and from 12:30-5:30PM on Saturdays.
Theo [2019], a historian of science, is a co-founder of Colectivo Catalyst, a transnational educational initiative that seeks to reimagine drug education for a world beyond prohibition. His research seeks to expand democratic participation in current debates around drugs, addiction and drug policy. His doctoral dissertation explored the contested trajectories of US social scientific research on the prevention of drug use, delinquency and mental illness from the 1950s to the present.
His current research is tracing the circulation of preventive social scientific expertise within the Americas within the broader context of the war on drugs.
Alongside his historical research, Theo has co-founded ReD (Rethinking Drugs/Replanteando Drogas), a growing network of students, scholars and artists in Mexico and the UK who are exploring how and where drug education can be expanded beyond its traditional focus on individual health. Theo says the network seeks to spark more democratic, deliberative and interdisciplinary engagement with the topic of drugs in all of its complexity.
He states: “As the political philosopher Wendy Brown argues, “citizens cannot rule themselves…without understanding the powers and problems they are engaging in.” ReD seeks to create spaces of learning that make it possible to understand “the powers and problems” we engage with when we encounter drugs.”
*Promotional material for the exhibition will be posted on Instagram here – @re.drxgs.
