Dr. Ryan Steel
Visiting Lecturer of Sociology
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Profile
Ryan Steel's research interests focus on the intersection of drugs (and drug laws), the body/embodiment, governance and social control. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the medical cannabis program in Minnesota, which is one of the most restrictive programs in the U.S., and seeks to understand the ways in which marijuana's medicalization emerges from a century of criminal prohibition, and how the institutions involved come to govern patients' everyday use experiences. In addition to his research interests in the social aspects of drugs, Dr. Steel has also conducted scholar activist ethnographic research on affordable and public housing in Minneapolis, and has a deep interest in urban sociology, human geography, and social space.