HR948-7-SP-CO:
Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs (From the Sixteenth to the Twenty First Century)
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
20
29 May 2019
Requisites for this module
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Drugs are an intricate part of modern history. Study on drugs opens an opportunity for us to approach modern history from a different, refreshing yet equally authentic angle. This module questions the received knowledge by looking at the cultural and social history of drugs from the sixteenth century to the twenty first century.
It covers opiates use in China and Britain as well as the global culture of smoking well before the advent of the 'Opium War' and 'War on Drugs' from the second half of the nineteenth century. It charges the multiplicity of drugs used in the twentieth century and highlights their diverse modes of consumption by a variety of social groups, from opium-smoking scholars to morphine-consuming housewives and heroin-injecting peddlers.
The module will also show how prohibition in the early twentieth century contributed to social exclusion, driving drug consumption downwards the social ladder as it criminalised, and how far government policies purporting to contain narcotics actually created a 'drug problem'.
This module allows students to integrate drugs into the familiar terrain of historical studies and methods, and into pre-existing fields of society, culture, or power.
On completing the module, students will have gained confidence in working with a diverse range of primary sources. Have assessed recent theoretic and methodological debates about researching the social and economic as well as cultural history of narcotics. Have gained understanding of the diverse modes of narcotic use in different cultures from early modern to modern times.
General Reading List:
Coomber, Russ (ed.), Drugs and Drug Use in Society: a critical reader, Darford: Greenwich University Press, 1994.
Gilman, Sander L & Xun Zhou, Smoke: a Global History of Smoking, London: Reaktion Books, 2004
Goodman, J., Lovejoy, P. E., Sherratt, A. (eds.) Consuming habit: drugs in history and anthropology, London: Routledge, 1995.
Goldberg, Ted, Demystifying Drugs: A Psychosocial Perspective, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.
1 x 2 hour seminar per week
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
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Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Xun Zhou, email: xzhoug@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Xun Zhou
Graduate Administrator, Department of History, Telephone: 01206 872190
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No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 20 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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