VAC34: The Infernal Grove
About
The Infernal Grove Working Group is an interdisciplinary group of humanists, activists, curators, and artists researching drug-taking, addiction, and recovery. We seek to identify the social conditions that cause harm to some drug users, and to mitigate those harms when we can.
Open to New People
Active since: 2022
- Syracuse University
- University of Rochester
- Le Moyne College
Collaborative Goals
The Infernal Grove Working Group is an interdisciplinary group of scholars, activists and and artists researching drugtaking, addiction, and recovery. We seek to identify the social conditions that cause harm to some drug users, and to mitigate such harms as we can.
Our research has been framed by a set of iterative questions:
- Where did the concept “addiction” come from?
- Who has it been used against?
- Who (or what) does it serve?
- How can we help?
Our methods have included:
- A social media campaign;
- A series of public study groups;
- A screening series featuring work by and about people living with legal, employment, and/or health outcomes of drug use;
- An immersive video installation; and
- A documentary film
The Infernal Grove Project is based on the researchers’ lived experience of drug use and the consequent interventions of state and medical establishments, which included both involuntary hospitalization and outpatient rehabilitation. It is made by people with lived experience of drugs, to serve people with lived experience of drugs and those who love and support them by offering the pleasures of reading and critical dialogue to a population where those things can be missing
Group Organizers
Emily Duke
Associate Professor, Art Video; Associate Chair, Recruitment and Tour Coordination, Syracuse University
Leila Nadir
Associate Professor; Program Director Environmental Humanities Program, University of Rochester