The Graduate Student Anthropology Association hosts Sydney Silverstein, an anthropologist and filmmaker with a mixed-methods, multimedia research practice. Dr. Silverstein's newest film explores narratives surrounding reenactment and recovery in a Peruvian drug rehabilitation center. The film captures the tensions, complications, and emotions which surround drug addiction and recovery.
Her research examines the War on Drugs—its origins, is multiple social realities, and its consequences. Situated at the intersection of medical anthropology, political economy, and visual anthropology, her scholarship explores the diverse social worlds that come together around the production, circulation, use, and policing of illicit drugs. She conducts research and makes films in both Peru and North America on topics as diverse as coca cultivation, drug overdose prevention, addiction treatment and recovery, and the role of the criminal justice system in managing substance use disorders.
Dr. Silverstein is currently an Assistant Professor at the Center for Interventions, Treatment, and Addictions Research (CITAR) in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University.
