Drawing on the history and anthropology of medicine, food, and agriculture, Alex’s ethnographic research investigates the ongoing processes of cannabis legalization in the United States and Canada. His dissertation analyzes the scientization of the plant and its substances, alongside a close attention to its horticultural production as its historically oppressed farming cultures are reorganized in response to post-prohibition marketization. Alex’s fieldwork spans across a variety of settings to follow the multiple social lives of cannabis as it moves from farms to scientific laboratories to consumers and patients, with critical attention on how the structures of global prohibition and its discriminatory underpinnings both inform and are challenged by emerging forms of legalization. He aims to highlight emancipatory ideas and practices that point towards more equitable and sustainable agricultural economies, with broader implications for the nature of industrialized farming in North America, by focusing on how notions of social and environmental sustainability are integrated into market frameworks and with what actual consequences for farmers, businesses, and users. He conducts fieldwork in Northern California, Southern Ontario, Canada, and the North-East, USA. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability at MIT.
Alex holds a BA in Anthropology from McMaster University and an MA in Social Anthropology from York University, Toronto. Alongside his degree studies, he has worked as a health science researcher for McMaster’s Department of Family Medicine, the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, and the Program for Educational Research and Development.