Rod Phillips attends the annual meeting of the American Historical Association

Professor Rod Phillips attended the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Washington, DC, in early January. He participated in a panel titled, “Drugs in the classroom. What should we tell students about alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and addictive digital technologies in history — and in their own lives?” 

The panel and the audience shared experiences teaching courses on the history of various drugs. Phillips, who teaches a course at Carleton on the history of alcohol, talked about the teaching opportunities afforded by the legalization of cannabis in Canada in 2018. The issues raised — including the regulation of production, distribution, and consumption, as well as the personal and social implications — parallel historic debates about alcohol. There was also a discussion of the usefulness of teaching courses under the umbrella concept of addiction.