Righteous Dopefiend: Homelessness, Addiction and Poverty in Urban America

Feb. 14–April 28, 2017:

In “Righteous Dopefiend: Homelessness, Addiction and Poverty in Urban America,” anthropologist Philippe Bourgois and photographer-ethnographer Jeff Schonberg document the daily lives of homeless drug users, drawing upon more than a decade of fieldwork they conducted among a community of heroin injectors and crack smokers who survive on the streets of San Francisco’s former industrial neighborhoods. Numerous black and white photographs are interwoven with edited transcripts of tape recorded conversations, fieldwork notes and critical analysis to explore the intimate experience of homelessness and addiction. Revealing the social survival mechanisms and perspectives of this marginalized “community of addicted bodies,” the exhibition also sheds light on the often unintended consequences of public policies that can exacerbate the suffering faced by street-based drug users in America.

Sponsored by:
The Ashton J. and Virginia Graham O’Donnell Endowed Chair in Global Studies Endowment, the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty Visiting Educator Fund, and the Department of Anthropology.