In recent years, as the drug war has intensified, the Mexican military has allowed media professionals to explore its Museum of Drugs, which is used primarily to train soldiers, and to introduce the Museum's exhibits of narcocultura, or drug trafficking culture, to the larger public. Drawing on observations in the Museum, this article argues that the exhibits of narcocultura, by authorizing visualizations of drug traffickers for the military and the larger public and modeling the transformative logic of culture, both support the military's professionalization and serve as the basis for a campaign that calls for the watchfulness and support of civilians.
Based on ethnographic research in Northern Mexico, this article describes the efforts of men within a therapeutic community closely tied to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to manage perceptions of AA recovery pathways, and to define for themselves and the larger public the nature of the spirituality that they acquired in recovery. Through an analysis informed by discourse studies and linguistic anthropology, the article shows that through discourse and symbolic actions in public display events, the men reinforced a belief in the effectiveness of AA recovery pathways by affirming their stigmatized identities as “addicts,” and by framing experiences such as rejection by family, an arrest or an encounter with death as possibilities for demonstrating honesty and authenticity, and for developing a sense of spirituality and the confidence needed to do the work of recovery. The men’s spirituality did not rely on any kind of consistent religious or spiritual practice; rather, it involved recognizing God as a force in their lives and remaining open to new discoveries and insights.
The Indiana State Museum’s Fix: Heartbreak and Hope: Inside Our Opioid Crisis is the first large-scale exhibit dedicated to the opioid epidemic. It involves diverse groups of visitors in learning about the history and science of opioid use disorder, making decisions that will help resolve the opioid crisis, and practicing techniques that for many people are essential to long-term recovery. By reviewing the different components of the exhibit, I show how the exhibit can serve as a basic model for advancing health promotion in museums. The exhibit illuminates the ways interactive health exhibits can engage adult visitors, reduce stigma, provide knowledge that visitors can use to exercise control over their health, and expand awareness of the need for evidence-based approaches to public health crises.
Black women, LGBTQ folx, and artists in Louisville, Kentucky, played key roles in bringing attention to the police killing of Breonna Taylor and ensuring that Breonna became a focus of the Black Lives Matter movement. In this oral history interview, one of the organizers of protest actions in Louisville, Talesha Wilson, remembers how she became involved again in Black Lives Matter in 2020. She discusses the need to address sexism, homophobia, and transphobia while seeking racial justice and describes an action that she organized in an area of the city called NuLu. The action highlighted how the organization of urban space and gentrification have disempowered Black people and forced them to live in areas where they are more likely to be the victims of police violence.
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