IBS Speaker Series: Brian King

Join in person at IBS 155 or via Zoom, email ibs-contact@colorado.edu for the password.
*Light lunch served at 11:45 a.m.

Title: Infectious Addictions in a Changing World

Bio: Brian King is Head of Department of Geography, Professor of Geography, and Courtesy Appointment in School of International Affairs (SIA) at Pennsylvania State University; Associate Faculty for the Population Research Institute (PRI); Affiliate Faculty for Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI); Affiliate, Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction. 

Abstract: The diverse threats to human health have long been understood as socio-environmental hazards; however, the rapidly expanding co-occurrence of epidemics are an emerging socio-environmental crisis. While it remains common for social science disciplines to evaluate health hazards in isolation, political ecology frameworks analyze them as multi-faceted and synergistic events that are generated by a confluence of political, social, and environmental dynamics. One recent example is the coincidence of the U.S. opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite significant progress made in recent years toward reducing over-prescription of opioids and expanding access to critical harm reduction and treatment services, the COVID-19 pandemic compromised many of these advances and raised new challenges for mitigating opioid use and misuse. This paper integrates quantitative and qualitative data from 2018 – 2023, including opioid-related overdose incidents and qualitative interviews with public health providers from across the Appalachian region to identify the key factors influencing opioid misuse and transformations in addiction treatment practices. I argue that integrating political ecologies of health frameworks with geospatial data can help in identifying more informed policy interventions to assist the public health sector in managing co-occurring epidemics and improve local overdose response in places that are experiencing dynamic change.