Dr. Aysel Sultan

• Sociology of health and illness
• Childhood and youth
• Critical public health
• International drug policy
• Harm reduction
• (New) Materialism and posthumanism

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

• 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). “Victimless crime”: Digital drug markets as a socio-technical innovation and the arrival of chemical revolution in Germany (tentative). 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.
• Sultan, A., & Duncan, T., (in preparation). By women for women: Ethics, demands and differences in retracing the feminist harm reduction movement in Germany (tentative title).

→ Current courses

• SE Academic Skills
• SE The Value of Life: Public Health, Policy and Ethics
• SE Responsibility in Environment and Health: Social and Cultural Perspectives on Environment, Health, Science, and Technology

• co-Editor-in-Chief 

Drugs, Habits and Social Policy journal is committed to bringing together research on the cultural, social and material contexts of drug use, policy, and professional practices. Previously published as Drugs and Alcohol Today (2001-2021).

• Reviewer

“International Journal of Drug Policy”, “Sociology of Health and Illness”, “Contemporary Drug Problems”, “Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy” , “Child Indicators Research” , “International Social Work” , “International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being”, “International Journal of Human Rights”, “Medicine Anthropology Theory”, “Health and Place”, “Subjectivity“, "Health: an interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness and medicine" , "Addiction Research & Theory", "Social Science and Medicine"

• Research consultancy

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

INVITED TALKS

• 2024 / virtual 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, Goldsmiths University of London, Workshop on Health Histories of Alcohol and Drugs. 
• 2023 / virtual 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. 
• 2023 /  Melbourne, Australia. “Recovering assemblages: Unfolding sociomaterial relations of drug use and recovery”, August 16, Talking Point, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University. 
• 2023 / Aachen, Germany. “Towards a discursive intervention in telling the story of academic precarity”, March 15-17. STS hub: Towards encounters among STS scholars in Germany. 
• 2023 / Exeter, UK. “Imagining recovery otherwise”, January 26-27, Symposium: Healing disruption: other histories of intoxication and 'addiction'. University of Exeter.
• 2021 / virtual 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. 
• 2017 / Vechta, Germany.  "Cultural indicators of high-risk drug use among adolescents: Cases of Azerbaijan and Germany", November 14, Vechta University. 

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• 2024 / Amsterdam, Netherlands. "Affirmative ethics as an engaged methodology: Mapping the cartography of critical drug studies".  EASST/4S joined conference, July 16-19.
• 2023 / Leuven, Belgium. “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. 
• 2021 / virtual Vienna. “Theorizing intersectionally with material gerontology and critical drug studies”, European Society for Social Drug Research (ESSD), September 30 – October 1.
• 2020 / virtual Prague. “Transcending experiences, limiting concepts: How to rethink 'recovery' in a non-standard comparative study?”, EASST/4S joined conference, August 18-21. 
• 2019 / Lisbon, Portugal. "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. 
• 2019 / Prato, Italy. "Rethinking recovery: Unfolding social and material practices", 5th Contemporary Drug Problems (CDP) Conference, September 4-6. 
• 2019 / Tartu, Estonia. "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. 
• 2019 / Paris, France. “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. 
• 2018 / Frankfurt am Main, Germany. “Recovery and vulnerability in alcohol and other drug use treatment of adolescents”, 1st Childhood Vulnerability Conference, December 12-14. 
• 2018 / Vancouver, Canada. “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. 
• 2017 / Berlin, Germany. “Overlooked” Azerbaijani youth: How does local drug policy affect prescription drug use patterns, Drug Science Conference, September 7-9. 
• 2017 / Helsinki, Finland. “Narratives of high-risk drug use by adolescents: Cross-cultural perspectives, 4th Contemporary Drug Problems Conference (CDP), August 23-25, 2017. 
• 2017 / Reykjavík, Iceland. “Marginalized adolescent high-risk drug users in Azerbaijan and Germany” International Federation for Social Workers (IFSW) European Conference, May 28-30. 
• 2017 / Århus, Denmark. “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. 
• 2016 / Frankfurt am Main, Germany. '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. 
• 2016 / Vilnius, Lithuania. “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. 

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 

• European Association for the Study of Science and Technology
• European Society for Social Drug Research
• International Society for the Study of Drug Policy
• Lab for Studies of Science and Technology
• stsing eV

• 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