Dr. Aysel Sultan

• Addressing gender-specific needs in drug service settings: an analysis of gender-responsive design in action, Aug-Oct 2023
• Wissenschaftskulturen in Deutschland (Research Cultures in Germany), Jan-Dec 2022

BOOK

• Sultan, A. (2022). Recovering assemblages: Unfolding sociomaterial relations of drug use and recovery . Palgrave Macmillan: Singapore. https://link.springer.com/book/9789811912344

Reviews of the book: 

-- Strong, T. (2024). Recovering assemblages: Unfolding sociomaterial relations of drug use and recovery by Aysel Sultan (2022). International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. https://doi.org/10.4320/FBQA5584

-- Brookfield, S. (2023). Recovering assemblages: unfolding sociomaterial relations of drug use and recovery. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2023.2181493

-- Harkness, S. (2023). Book Review: Recovering assemblages: Unfolding sociomaterial relations of drug use and recovery by Aysel Sultan. International Criminal Justice Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/10575677231168845 

ARTICLES

• Gomes, A.B. & Sultan, A. (2024). Problematizing content moderation by social media platforms and its impact on digital harm reduction. Harm Reduction Journal. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-024-01104-9
• Sultan, A. (2024). Situating the Local in Global Drug Policy Debates: Historical Overview of Political and Drug Market Developments in Azerbaijan. Journal of Illicit Economies and Development. https://doi.org/10.31389/jied.215
• Sultan, A., & Duff, C. (2022). The line of vulnerability in a recovery assemblage. International Journal of Drug Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103740
• Hunner-Kreisel, C., Nasrullayeva, N., Kreisel, S., Sultan, A., Bühler-Niderberger, D. (2022). Being a (female) child in Baku: Social order and understandings of well-being. Child Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-022-09940-6
• Sultan, A. (2021). Aging with drug use: Theorizing intersectionally with material gerontology and critical drug studies. Journal of Aging Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2021.100990
• Sultan, A. (2021). 'What's the problem represented to be?' The place and wellbeing of young people in Azerbaijan's drug policy. Child Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-021-09874-5
• Sultan, A. & Duff, C. (2021). Assembling and diversifying social contexts of recovery. International Journal of Drug Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102979
• Sultan, A. & Werse, B. (2019). “Motivations for prescription drug use in a marginalized open drug scene,” Drugs and Alcohol Today. https://doi.org/10.1108/DAT-08-2019-0036
• Sultan, A. & Andresen, S. (2019). 'A child on drugs': Conceptualizing childhood experiences of agency and vulnerability. Global Studies of Childhood.  https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610619860996
• Sultan, A. & Mažeikienė, N. (2019). Living with HIV in post-Soviet states: Rejecting individual stigma through social activism. International Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872819858746

CHAPTERS

• Sultan, A., Bühler-Niederberger, D., 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

• Hunner-Kreisel, C., Bühler-Niederberger, D.,  Sultan, A. (2022). Foundations of well-being in children's and youth's everyday lives in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. Child Indicators Research. https://link.springer.com/journal/12187/volumes-and-issues/15-4
• Sultan, A. & Hupli, A. (2020). Beyond prescription drugs: International perspectives on extra-medical use. Drugs and Alcohol Today. https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1745-9265/vol/20/iss/1

COMMENTARY AND REPORTS

• Babor, T., Adinoff, B.,… Room, R., Rychert, M, Sultan, A., Treloar, C.,… Witkiewitz, K. (2025). A clarion call to the addiction science community: It’s time to resist the anti-scientific policies of the US Trump administration. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
• Sultan, A. (2024). Azerbaijan: Between the Soviet Legacy and International Drug Control. TalkingDrugs. https://www.talkingdrugs.org/azerbaijan-between-the-soviet-legacy-and-international-drug-control/
• Rychert, M., Sultan, A., Mialon, M. (2024). AI and new digital technologies have transformed Alcohol and Other Drug industries lobbying. Drugs, Habits and Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1108/DHS-05-2024-072
• Sultan, A. (2024). "Prasad, A. (2023). Science Studies Meets Colonialism. Polity Press: Cambridge, UK". Science & Technology Studies. https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.136097
• Ploder, M., Walker, D., Schiffbänker, H., Streicher, J., Müller, R., Sultan, A. , Blümel, C., Knöchelmann, M., Simon, D. (2023). Scientific cultures in Germany: A study commissioned by the Volkswagen Foundation. Available at: www.volkswagenstiftung.de/sites/default/files/documents/Studie_Wissenschaftskulturen%20in%20Deutschland_web.pdf
• Sultan, A., & Rychert, M. (2022). Inaugural editorial: Reflecting on the past, envisioning the future. Drugs, Habits and Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1108/DHS-03-2022-061
• Stothard, B., & Sultan, A. (2021). "Research Handbook on International Drug Policy, edited by David R. Bewley-Taylor and Khalid Tinasti. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, 2020, 391 pp., ISBN 978-1-78811-705-0 (hardback)". Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2021.1906847
• Uhl, A., Strizek, J., Stothard, B., Klein, A., & Sultan, A. (2021). Guest editorial. Special Issue: Alcohol Policy and Evidence. Drugs and Alcohol Today. https://doi.org/10.1108/DAT-03-2021-077
• Sultan, A. (2021). Drug services in Azerbaijan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Baku Research Institute. https://bakuresearchinstitute.org/en/drug-services-in-azerbaijan-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
• Sultan, A. (2020). A review of global drug policy: Is legalization the future? Baku Research Institute. https://bakuresearchinstitute.org/en/a-review-of-global-drug-policy-is-legalization-the-future/
• Andresen, S., König, J., & Sultan, A. (2019). Editorial. Childhood Vulnerability Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41255-020-00012-x
• Sultan, A. (2018). Overlooked Youth: How Does National Drug Discourse Influence Recovery in Azerbaijan? Baku Research Institute. https://bakuresearchinstitute.org/en/overlooked-youth-how-does-national-drug-discourse-influence-recovery-in-azerbaijan/  

FORTHCOMING

• Sultan, A. (invited contribution; in preparation). The case of Shiny Flakes: Revisiting the entrepreneurial 'dealer'. In S. Flacks & K. Seear (Eds.), Judging Drugs: Critical Issues in Law and Society. Cambridge University Press.
• Sultan, A. (invited contribution; in preparation). Social geographies of addiction. In C. Di Feliciantonio & A. Vanolo (Eds.), De Gruyter Handbook of Social Geographies. De Gruyter.
• Müller, R., & Sultan, A. (in preparation). A Domain Like Any Other? Interdisciplinarity in AI-Supported Research in Germany. Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture & Society.
• Sultan, A., & Duncan, T. (in preparation). Ethics, demands and differences: Rethinking ‘harm’ in women-only harm reduction services in Germany.

• co-Editor-in-Chief 

Drugs, Habits and Social Policy journal publishes research, policy and practitioner papers on the cultural, social and material contexts of drug use and related practices. Previously published as Drugs and Alcohol Today (2001-2021).

• Reviewer (journals)

"Addiction Research & Theory", “Child Indicators Research”, “Contemporary Drug Problems”, "Harm Reduction Journal", “Health and Place”, "Health: an interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness and medicine", 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”

• Reviewer (books and book proposals)

Publishers: "Anthem Press", "Springer Nature" 

• Research consultancy

European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EU Drugs Agency), Global Drug Survey (GDS)

INVITED TALKS

• 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 / Aachen. “Towards a discursive intervention in telling the story of academic precarity”, March 15-17. STS hub: Towards encounters among STS scholars in Germany. RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
• 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.
• 2017 / Vechta.  "Cultural indicators of high-risk drug use among adolescents: Cases of Azerbaijan and Germany", November 14, Vechta University, Germany.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• 2025 / Berlin. “Diffracting social media presence of harm reduction services for people who use illicit drugs”. STS-Hub, March 11-14. Humboldt University, Germany.
• 2024 / Amsterdam. "Affirmative ethics as an engaged methodology: Mapping the cartography of critical drug studies".  EASST/4S joined conference, July 16-19. Vrije University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• 2023 / Leuven. “The 'new' era for drug policy in Azerbaijan: Developments in responding to drug market changes”. 16th Annual Conference of The International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), May 31-June 1. KU Leuven, Belgium.
• 2021 / Vienna. “Theorizing intersectionally with material gerontology and critical drug studies”, European Society for Social Drug Research (ESSD), September 30 – October 1. University of Vienna, Austria.
• 2020 / Prague. “Transcending experiences, limiting concepts: How to rethink 'recovery' in a non-standard comparative study?”, EASST/4S joined conference, August 18-21. virPrague.
• 2019 / Lisbon. "Unfolding social and material practices of drug treatment for youth in Azerbaijan and Germany", Lisbon Addictions (the third European Conference on Addictive Behaviors and Dependencies), October 23-25. Centro de Congressos de Lisboa, Portugal.
• 2019 / Prato. "Rethinking recovery: Unfolding social and material practices", 5th Contemporary Drug Problems (CDP) Conference, September 4-6. Monash University, Prato Centre, Italy.
• 2019 / Tartu. "Azerbaijan's national drug policy reflected in recovery of youth who use drugs", 7th Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI), August 27-29. Tartu University, Estonia.
• 2019 / Paris. “The stake of a 'non-standard' comparative approach: Drug treatment policies of Azerbaijan and Germany", 13th annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), May 22-24. Paris School of Economics, France.
• 2018 / Frankfurt am Main. “Recovery and vulnerability in alcohol and other drug use treatment of adolescents”, 1st Childhood Vulnerability Conference, December 12-14. Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany.
• 2018 / Vancouver. “Recovery as an assemblage: Empirical findings from Azerbaijan”, the 12th Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), May 16-18. Simon Fraser University, Canada.
• 2017 / Berlin. “Overlooked” Azerbaijani youth: How does local drug policy affect prescription drug use patterns, Drug Science Conference, September 7-9. Humboldt University, Germany.
• 2017 / Helsinki. “Narratives of high-risk drug use by adolescents: Cross-cultural perspectives, 4th Contemporary Drug Problems Conference (CDP), August 23-25, 2017. Helsinki Congress Paasitorni, Finland.
• 2017 / Reykjavík. “Marginalized adolescent high-risk drug users in Azerbaijan and Germany” International Federation for Social Workers (IFSW) European Conference, May 28-30. Reykjavík, Iceland.
• 2017 / Århus. “Drug policies in Azerbaijan and Germany reflected in the narratives of high-risk drug-user adolescents”, 11th Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), May 17-19. Aarhus University, Denmark.
• 2016 / Frankfurt am Main. 'Person-in-context': Using narratives to study adolescent drug use in Azerbaijan and Germany, 27th Conference of the European Society for Social Drug Research (ESSD), September 22-24. Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany.
• 2016 / Vilnius. “Coping strategies of drug-using adolescents: Cross-cultural perspective”, 24th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD), July 10-14. Vilnius, Lithuania.

RECORDED TALKS AND INTERVIEWS

• 27 Feb 2024. “The history, policies and practice of drug control in Asia” [Audio Podcast Episode]. In Deep Dive: Crime Beyond Borders. Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/crime-beyond-borders-podcast/#podcast-35018-1
• 16 Aug 2023. Recovering Assemblages: Unfolding Sociomaterial Relations of Drug Use and Recovery. Turning Point, Monash University: Melbourne. YouTube. https://youtu.be/yrYhyTTfHo0?si=fvMSjuCUK_tvks7o