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Technical University of Munich

Dr. Aysel Sultan

Lecturer

Science and Technology Policy

Aysel Sultan is a Senior Lecturer in biomedicine and health within the RESET M.A. program funded by the Elite Network of Bavaria, and is affiliated with the Eastern Health Clinical School at Monash University. She has B.Sc. in Psychology from Baku State University (2010), MA in Social Work from Vytautas Magnus University (2013), and holds a PhD in Educational Sciences from Goethe Universität Frankfurt (2019). Her interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of sociology of health and illness, child and youth wellbeing studies, and critical public health. During her post-doctoral fellowships awarded by the Minerva Foundation (BMBF) at the University of Haifa (Israel) and DAAD at Monash University (Australia), she explored culturally-adapted drug treatment modalities, gender-responsive drug service design and policy impact in accessing harm reduction. Her monograph, Recovering Assemblages, published by Palgrave Macmillan, explores socio-cultural, linguistic, and policy dimensions in young people’s recovery experiences in Azerbaijan and Germany. She worked as a research associate in national and international collaborative research projects on ‘Research Cultures in Germany’ funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, ‘Developing Addiction Social Work in Central Asia and China’ funded by DAAD Exceed, and the ‘Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse’ of the German Federal Cabinet. Her research expertise was used to consult collaborative projects for the EU Drugs Agency and Global Drug Survey. Currently, she is studying how digital platforms shape knowledge around health, harm and safety with a particular interest in digital harm reduction and social media drug markets.

Aysel is the Editor of the international, peer-reviewed academic journal Drugs, Habits and Social Policy published by Emerald, and Associate Editor in Harm Reduction Journal published by BMC/Springer Nature. 

  • Sociology of health and illness
  • Child and youth wellbeing
  • Critical public health
  • International drug policy
  • Harm reduction
  • Materialism and posthumanism

BOOK

Reviews of the book: 

 RESEARCH ARTICLES
CHAPTERS IN EDITED VOLUMES
  • Sultan, A., Bühler-Niederberger, D. and Nasrullayeva, N. (2023). Sociomaterial Analysis of Azerbaijani Children's Smartphone Use: Generational Ordering Through User-Technology Interactions. In The Emerald Handbook of Childhood and Youth in Asian Societies. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-283-920231014
EDITED SPECIAL ISSUES
EDITORIALS AND REVIEWS
COMMENTARY AND REPORTS
FORTHCOMING
  • Sultan, A. (in press). Revisiting the entrepreneurial 'dealer': The case of Shiny Flakes. In S. Flacks & K. Seear (Eds.), Judging Drugs: Critical Issues in Law and Society. Cambridge University Press.
  • Müller, R & Sultan, A (in preparation). A domain like any other? Caring for interdisciplinarity in AI-supported research. Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture & Society. 

  • co-Editor-in-Chief 

Drugs, Habits and Social Policy journal published by Emerald, covers research, policy and practitioner papers on the cultural, social and material contexts of drug use and related practices. The journal was previously named Drugs and Alcohol Today (2001-2021).

  • Associate Editor

Harm Reduction Journal  published by BMC (Springer Nature) 

  • Reviewer (journals)

"Addiction Research & Theory", “Child Indicators Research”, “Contemporary Drug Problems”, “Digital Health”, "Harm Reduction Journal", “Health”, “Health and Place”, "International Journal of Drug Policy”, “International Journal of Human Rights”, "International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being”, “International Social Work”, “Medicine Anthropology Theory”, "Social Science and Medicine", “Sociology of Health and Illness”, “Subjectivity“, “Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy”, “The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs”, “Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation” 

  • Reviewer (books and book proposals)

Publishers: "Anthem Press", "Springer Nature" 

  • Research consultancy

- EU Drugs Agency
- Global Drug Survey

INVITED TALKS (Selected)
  • 2025 / Århus. Affirmative ethics as engaged methodology in critical drug studies, June 23, Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research. Århus University, Denmark.
  • 2025 / Durham. Ethics, demands and differences: Retracing the feminist harm reduction movement in Germany, February 26, Health and Social Theory Seminar Series, Durham University, UK.
  • 2024 / London. Situating the local in global drug policy debates through a neocolonial critique: Historical overview of political and drug market developments in Azerbaijan, January 26, Workshop on Health Histories of Alcohol and Drugs, Goldsmiths University of London, UK.
  • 2023 / Paris. “Victimless crime”: The case of Shiny Flakes as a socio-technical innovation and the arrival of chemical revolution in Germany, September 5, The Sixth Contemporary Drug Problems Conference Workshop. École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France.
  • 2023 /  Melbourne. “Recovering assemblages: Unfolding sociomaterial relations of drug use and recovery”, August 16, Talking Point, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Australia.
  • 2023 / Exeter. “Imagining recovery otherwise”, January 26-27, Symposium: Healing disruption: other histories of intoxication and 'addiction'. University of Exeter, UK.
  • 2021 / Friborg. “Deleuzian approach to rethinking vulnerability: A case study of recovery from drug use in military service”, Lecture series on Vulnerability: Interdisciplinary approaches. March 24, University of Friborg, Switzerland.
RECORDED TALKS AND INTERVIEWS

  • European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
  • European Society for Social Drug Research (ESSD)
  • International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP)
  • International Society of Addiction Journal Editors (ISAJE)
  • Lab for Studies of Science and Technology
  • Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
  • stsing (Doing Science and Technology Studies in and through Germany) 

  • Visiting researcher fellowship (2023), DAAD and Monash University
  • Postdoctoral research fellowship (2020), Minerva Foundation, University of Haifa
  • PhD completion scholarship (2018-2019), Department of Educational Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt
  • Full PhD Scholarship (2014-2017), Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan
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