Wonder Drug: Needle Exchange as a Site of Care, Connection, and Renewal

CE Mackenzie 
Humanities Center Fellow 

Abstract: “My writing is grounded in outreach with Prevention Point Pittsburgh (PPP) and their needle exchange program. While scholarship on the U.S. opioid epidemic is pursued within public health and social work sectors, I integrate affect studies to encourage a deeper approach to addiction, one that resists capitalistic constructions of the body that demand “productive" outcomes and profitable futures. My aim is to rethink precarity within the vibrant space of needle exchange by analyzing wonder as an overlooked affect that privileges agency. At PPP, I explore how participant-centered methods of advocacy—such as Naloxone training and unconditional care services—nurture this agency.” –CE Mackenzie 

Sponsored by the Humanities Center