2021 Semi-Annual Updates
Terence Ching has one manuscript under review at a journal and one under internal review at MAPS.
Madeline Pantoni’s project is still in the write-up stage.
Thomas Varley’s project is ongoing. Supply-chain issues following COVID-19 have slowed data collection considerably as it takes longer than expected to receive lab equipment (6-well plates, reagents, etc). He has recorded ~20 cultures with and without the psychedelic DPT and is beginning to analyze that data now. In the coming months, he hopes to at least record ~20 more cultures with DPT and ketanserin. Whether he is able to do the stimulation/learning arm of the project is dependent on the continuing availability of lab supplies.
Halsey Niles has completed data analysis and has submitted his manuscript, which is currently under review. He also plans to present at a palliative care conference pending approval from his residency program. Halsey will use his SRF Funds for open-source publishing fees once his manuscript is accepted. His presentations are listed below:
For whom: attitudes of palliative care providers toward psychedelic-assisted therapies to test existential distress. Presented by Halsey Niles at Resident Psychedelic Conference, May 23, 2021.
Gabby Agin-Liebes has completed her project and is awaiting the opportunity to use her SRF funds to present at conferences. Her presentations are listed below:
Agin-Liebes, G (2020, September). Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for psychiatric and existential distress in patients with life-threatening cancer. Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research, Virtual Conference.
Giancarlo Glick continues to work on his project and hopes to near completion in 2022.
Olivia Marcus finished her project and completed her PhD as of this summer. Her impressive publications and presentations are listed below.
Marcus O. (in preparation). A sense of scents: perfumes and healing in Peruvian mestizo shamanism. Chapter of dissertation in preparation for submission to a special issue of the Anthropology of Consciousness.
Marcus O. (in preparation). ‘Globalizing traditions and traditionalizing global froms: ethics in mind-aletering vegetalista practices of the Peruvian Amazon’. Abstract accepted for forthcoming special issue of International Science Reviews.
Marcus O. (2020). ‘Anthropophagy Unites Us! But Can It Heal Us?’ Society for Cultural Anthropology ‘Hot Spots’. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/anthropophagy-unites-us-but-can-it-heal-us.
Tresca G. Marcus O, and Politi M. (2020) Evaluating herbal medicine preparation from a traditional perspective: insights from an ethnopharmaceutical survey in the Peruvian Amazon. Anthropology and Medicine, DOI: 10.1080/13648470.2019.1669939
Politi M, Rumlerova T, Marcus O, Saucedo G, Torres J, & Mabit J. (2019). Medicinal plants diet as emerging complementary therapy from the Amazonian tradition. Data from Centro Takiwasi, a Peruvian therapeutic community. Journal of Medicinal Herbs and Ethnomedicine 5:23-38.
Presentations:
Marcus O and Mesturini S. 'From Ritual to Justice: Towards a Decolonial and Feminist Approach to Ayahuasca'. Workshop organized for the 2021 annual meeting of the association of South American Lowland Anthropology.
Marcus O. 'Traditionalizing global forms: ethics in vegetalista practices of the Peruvian Amazon'. Paper presented at the 2020 Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research in Haarlem, The Netherlands.
Marcus O. 'Ethics in mind-altering vegetalista practices of the Peruvian Amazon' Paper presented at the 4S/EASST 2020 conference in Prague, Czech Republic.
Marcus O. 'Navigating Emergent Mental Health Resources Through Plant Medicine in the Peruvian Amazon'. Paper presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Jose, California.
Brandon Weiss has been published and plans to use his remaining SRF funds to attend conferences in the coming year. His publication is listed below:
Agin-Liebes, G., Yalch, M., Campbell, W. K, and Weiss, B. Examining change in psychological flexibility and negative affectivity following shamanic ceremonial use of ayahuasca. Psychopharmacology.
Rebecca Rothberg has been unable to travel to certain conferences due to continued COVID-19 restrictions. She hopes to be able to use her SRF funds for travel in the upcoming year. Her published articles and presentations are listed below:
Rothberg, R., Azhari, N., Haug, N., & Dakwar, E. (2020, Dec.). Mystical-Type Experiences Occasioned by Ketamine Mediate its Impact on At-Risk Drinking: Results from a Randomized, Controlled Trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Upcoming virtual conference presentation:
Rothberg, R., Azhari, N., Haug, N., & Dakwar, E. (2021, Sept.). Mystical-Type Experiences Occasioned by Ketamine Mediate its Impact on At-Risk Drinking: Results from a Randomized, Controlled Trial. Results presented at the Insight 2021 Conference in Berlin, Germany. Conference held virtually due to COVID-19.
Jacob Green is about to embark on a research trip to Akron, OH and Cambridge, MA, where he will use funds from the Source Research Foundation to collect archival materials for his dissertation. Documents he will be viewing include the scientific papers of the cannabis researcher Edmund Delabarre as well as unpublished letters on nitrous oxide in the William James collection at Harvard. He is on target to complete his dissertation in the Spring of 2024. His presentations are listed below:
Green, J. (2021) "Mysticism and Mind-Altering Drugs: 1870-1914" Presentation at the 2020 UCLA Grad Slam Challenge, Los Angeles, California (selected as one of 10 best presentations)
Upcoming Presentations:
Green, J. (2021) "Mysticism, Mind-altering Drugs and Psychology: 1870-1919" Presentation at the 2021 Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting, Online
Green, J. (2021) "William James' Network and Mind-altering Drug Research" Flash Talk Presentation at the 2021 History of Science Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA
Benjamin Hearn has submitted an initial manuscript using a significant portion of the data he collected. This manuscript focused solely on attitudes of counselors, rather than also including correlations between these attitudes and levels of religiosity/spirituality. Benjamin’s publications and presentations are listed below:
Hearn, B., Brubaker, M. Richardson, R. Counselor Attitudes Towards Psychedelics & Their Use in Therapy. (under review). Journal of Counseling & Development
Hearn, B., Brubaker, M., & Richardson, G. (June 2021). Humanistic Perspectives on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, Association of Humanistic Counseling Annual Conference, virtual.
Hearn, B., Brubaker, M., & Richardson, G. (April 2021). 'Psychedelics & the Counseling Profession: Ethical Responsibilities and Dilemmas'. American Counseling Association's 2021 Annual Conference, virtual.
Joshua Falcon is currently in the process of writing his dissertation and plans on graduating from his doctoral program on time in the Spring of 2022. His publications and presentations are listed below:
Psychedelics as Technologies of the Self: An Ethnographic and Netnographic Study on the Relationship Between Psilocybin Experiences and Subjectivity. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 20, 2021.
Caring for the self: psychedelic experiences and the relationship between self-knowledge and health. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Virtual Conference. April 11, 2021.
Lucia Terpak has completed her project and plans to use her remaining SRF funds to submit an article to a journal.
Ana Flecha is currently preparing to complete her Qualification Exam this November, 2021. She conducted some preliminary research this summer in Northeast Brazil with funds from a fellowship from the Social Sciences Research Council. This research informed her research prospectus for the QE. Her IRB application is under review and she is in final revisions for what will hopefully be the final step. She plans to have full approval by the end of the fall quarter. Ana is currently working on revisions of the following manuscript for Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença/Brazilian Journal of Presence Studies: “Currents of resistance: The Santo Daime bailado as politically subjective choreography". Ana plans to use her remaining SRF funds for field research in Amazonas, Brazil, September to November of 2022.
Alexis Turner was able to collect some archival data digitally during the pandemic, but data collection was hampered during this time due to high demand on archivists. Archives have recently reopened, however, and Alexis will be visiting them in the coming months to complete data collection and continue progress on their project. Alexis expects to complete the project by August of 2022.