Dr Emily Crick
BA Hons, MSc, PhD
Expertise
I am a Lecturer in Medical History in the Department of History.
Current positions
Lecturer in Medical History
Department of History (Historical Studies)
Contact
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Biography
Previously, I spent 3 years as a Research Development Associate at the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research where I managed an international research fund that supported innovative and impactful research into gambling harms. Before that, I worked as a PolicyBristol Associate with researchers in the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Science to help them develop the policy impact of their work. I delivered training, identified policymaker partners and gave advice on how to strengthen research bids and fellowship applications.
My own research and roles at the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms, PolicyBristol, Transform and Global Drug Policy Observatory have given me an in-depth understanding of a wide range of factors - from public opinion to UN Conventions - that contribute to the development of policy.
As well as an interest in drug policy, I have written about cricket, identity and peacebuilding in South Asia. I have Masters degrees in South Asian Studies (SOAS) and Security and Development (University of Bristol), and my undergraduate degree was in Historical Studies.
Research interests
My primary research interests centre on the control of illicit drugs, the regulatory models that have been used through time to manage access to these substances and the harms associated with them.
In 2008 I started working as a Research Associate at Transform Drug Policy Foundation, where I contributed to government consultations on alcohol policy and cocaine. I also spent one year as a Research Assistant at the Global Drug Policy Observatory at Swansea University where I was the lead author for two reports on developments in cannabis policy in the United States. I am a founding member of the Drug Policy Interdisciplinary Network based at the University of Bristol.
I completed a PhD in Politics/International Relations at the University of Bristol in 2018. My thesis, 'Security and the drug control dispositif: analysing the construction of drugs as an existential threat to humankind and the nation state', analysed how drugs have been constructed as threatening to humankind and the State and how these discourses have shaped drug policy and by extension, health, trade, security, criminal justice and social policies. I have taught on two 3rd year undergraduate units, Drugs and Society and Global illicit Drug Markets, in the School for Policy Studies.
As well as an interest in drug policy, I have written about cricket, identity and peacebuilding in South Asia. For example, Contact Sport: Cricket in India-Pakistan Relations Since 1999 (2009) in the South Asian Survey journal and Cricket and Indian National Consciousness (2007). I have Masters degrees in South Asian Studies (SOAS) and Security and Development (University of Bristol), and my undergraduate degree was in Historical Studies.
Publications
Recent publications
10/10/2022How states have adapted their drug laws within the flexibility of the UN drug conventions to improve the 'health and welfare' of their citizens
Drug Science and British Drug Policy
Re-thinking the 'War on Drugs': Reagan's Militarization of Drug Control
Prohibitions and Psychoactive Substances in History, Culture and Theory
Count the Costs of the War on Drugs: The War on Drugs: undermining peace and security
Count the Costs of the War on Drugs
Selling cannabis regulation: Learning From Ballot Initiatives in the United States in 2012
Selling cannabis regulation: Learning From Ballot Initiatives in the United States in 2012
Legally regulated cannabis markets in the US: Implications and Possibilities
Legally regulated cannabis markets in the US: Implications and Possibilities
Thesis
Security and the drug control dispositif
Supervisors
Award date
25/09/2018
Teaching
Previously, I taught on two units in the School for Policy Studies. The third year unit ‘Drugs and Society’ focussed on the historical, political and social contexts that shaped the development of national drug policies since 1900. More recently, I have been teaching on the third year unit ‘Global Illicit Drug Markets’ that explores how international drug policy has evolved and how it shapes criminal justice and development issues across the world.
I have also given lectures in the School for Policy Studies, the School of Arts and the School of Psychological Sciences on the development of national and international drug policy.
