About
My current research is animated by an interest in shifting conceptions of personal identity, consciousness, and moral agency in both popular and what might be called more specialised, professional, or “elite” spheres of knowledge from the late medieval to the nineteenth century.
The present focus of this work is on understandings of the nature and character of intoxication and chronic drug and alcohol use in medical, legal, moralistic, and popular writings in England from about 1500 to 1830. Several essays on this subject have been published or are in press, and I am currently working on a monographic study tentatively entitled: Medicine, Morals, and the Early Modern English Drunkard: Intoxication and Addiction in English Thought, 1600-1830. Education
BA (Hons.) (Philosophy) Queens University at Kingston (Ontario)
MA (History) University of Toronto
Ph D (History) University of Leicester (UK) Publications
Recent publications:
2022 “Conceiving Addiction: Historical Constructions of Chronic Intoxicant Use.” In
The Routledge Handbook of Intoxication, edited by Tamar Antin, Vibeke Frank, and Geoffrey Hunt. London: Routledge, 2022 (forthcoming).
2021 “‘Great Annoyance to Their Mindes’: the Humours, Intoxication, and Addiction in English Medical and Moral Discourses, 1550-1730.” In
Humorality in Early Modern Art, Material Culture, and Performance, edited by Kaara L. Peterson and Amy Kenny, 51-68. (London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2021).
2015 “The History and Culture of Alcohol and Drinking: 18th Century,” “The Gin Epidemic” and “The History of Addiction and Alcoholism” in Scott C. Martin, ed.,
Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives (Thousand Oaks, CA.: SAGE, 2015).Drin
2015 Susanne Schmid and Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp. “Drink in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries” (2014) [review]
Social History of Drugs and Alcohol.
2013 “Medical Expertise and the Understandings of Intoxication In Britain, 1660 to 1830.”
In Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures, edited by P. Withington and Jonathan Herring (London: Palgrave, 2013)
Projects
The nature and character of intoxication and chronic drug and alcohol use in medical, legal, moralistic, and popular writings in England from about 1500 to 1830. Several essays on this subject have been published or are in press, and I am currently working on a monographic study tentatively entitled: Medicine, Morals, and the Early Modern English Drunkard: Intoxication and Addiction in English Thought, 1600-1830.
Phoenix is a collaboration between Kenna Olsen, Professor of English Languages and Cultures at Mount Royal University, and David Clemis. Together we work with other scholars to investigate, reflect upon, support, and advocate for research and education in the humanities. Memberships
Drink Studies Network
North American Conference on British Studies – Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies
