I have been stimulated by the overarching question of how social context and cultural dynamics influence our felt experience of illness, healing, psychedelics, and altered states. As an anthropologist, I have immersed in fieldwork among different ayahuasca drinking groups and networks in Australia, Peru, and China—research that culminated in my first monograph Global Ayahuasca, an ethnography of the wonder and awe surrounding ayahuasca in these settings.
My current ethnographic project builds on this research, exploring the affective dimensions of psychedelic providers in Australia. This work aims to understand and situate the lived knowledge of psychedelic providers.
For some creative practice, I have been creating virtual reality films designed to cultivate atmospheric literacies, including about healing spaces in Hong Kong.
I co-founded the popular ayahuasca website Kahpi to share insights on ayahuasca, Amazonian traditions, and psychedelic medicine beyond the ivory tower.
Since 2021, I am Assistant Professor, and more recently, Deputy Director of the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit at The University of Hong Kong, where I teach medical students across narrative medicine, psychopharmacology and culture, and social justice in medicine.
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Alex K. Gearin 