PhD in Social Policy and Criminology
University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia
University International Postgraduate Award (UIPA) · Fully funded
Research Fellow
Dr Apei Song
Drug policy · Recovery · Punishment · Citizenship
Critical, people-centred research on drug policy and social life.
Apei Song is the CDPGP Director. He was awarded his PhD in Criminology and Social Policy from the University of New South Wales. His research sits at the intersection of drug use, recovery, punishment, and citizenship. Adopting critical and people-centred perspectives, his recent work examines the lived experiences of marginalised communities and the social, institutional, and political conditions that shape their everyday lives.
02Education
MA in Sociology
Xiamen University, China
BA in Social Work (Honors) & BA in Literature
Sichuan University, China
03Research Interests
Drug policy and governance · Recovery and rehabilitation · Sexualized drug use · Penal–welfare regimes · Judicial social work
04Research Projects
上海市哲学社会科学规划青年项目“虚实融合视角下青少年越轨行为的生成机制与干预路径研究”
项目编号：2025ESH003；华东理工大学黄琬主持
上海市白玉兰人才—浦江项目“青少年药物滥用预防政策话语建构与社会认知研究”
项目编号：25PC011；华东理工大学黄琬主持
Making Recovery Happen: How to Understand Citizenship and Employment of Chinese People Who Inject Drugs
UNSW Faculty of Law & Justice Research and Development Support Fund · AUD 6,000
Development and Research Training Grant (DRTG)
University of New South Wales · AUD 1,500
Development and Research Training Grant (DRTG)
University of New South Wales · AUD 1,500
05Publications
2026
- 01Song, A. & Chen, S. ‘Stigmatisation for poppers use is a sexualised mode of governance’: Lived experiences and counter-narratives of gay men who use poppers in mainland China. International Journal of Drug Policy, 152, 105277.View article ↗
- 02Song, A. ‘New Barefoot Doctors’: How social workers navigate HIV care and structural marginality in Yi ethnic minority communities. Social Science & Medicine, 403, 119356.View article ↗
- 03Sun, G., Jiang, J., & Song, A. Rehabilitation frames: How offenders understand and navigate the penal-welfare nexus in Chinese community corrections. Crime, Media, Culture.View article ↗
- 04Song, A. & Tong, Y. Weak chemsex as cultural scripts: Understanding how Chinese gay men narrate sexualised drug use. Sexualities.View article ↗
- 05Song, A. & Jiang, J. Pride and prejudice: Strategic coupling of punishment and welfare in Chinese community corrections. Theoretical Criminology.View article ↗
- 06Tong, Y., Song, A., & Su, Z. ‘We’re Experiencing Digital Death’: Chinese people who used heroin in community-based rehabilitation. Social Inclusion, 14.View article ↗
- 07Song, A., Ma, L., & Liu, Z. Revisiting professional autonomy and structural constraints: Relational work in anti-drug social work. International Social Work.View article ↗
- 08Song, A. & He, J. ‘Be Mom, for Mom’: Anti-authority recovery narratives of females who use drugs in China. Contemporary Drug Problems.View article ↗
- 09Song, A. & Jiang, J. Surviving in the cracks: How people who use drugs navigate police-led rehabilitation in China. Journal of Drug Issues.View article ↗
- 10Song, A., He, J., & Cui, K. From legal estrangement to legal mobilization: Navigating the processual professional autonomy of antidrug social workers in China. The British Journal of Social Work.View article ↗
- 11Song, A., Dertadian, G. C., & He, J. Recovery capital in Chinese drug rehabilitation: Exploring person-centred and community-based perspectives. Drug and Alcohol Review, 45(1), e70088.View article ↗
2025
- 01He, J., Liu, J., & Song, A. ‘It’s time … to end everything’: Discontinue medication choices and narratives among elderly HIV-positive Yi women. Social Science & Medicine, 383, 118450.View article ↗
- 02Song, A. & Tong, Y. Digitalising violence: Decoding management in the rehabilitation of people who use drugs. Punishment & Society.View article ↗
- 03Song, A. & He, J. Framing ‘Chemsexism’: Chinese gay men navigating stigma and labelling. Journal of Homosexuality.View article ↗
- 04Song, A., He, J., & Liu, Z. Systemic neglect hidden behind tolerance: The reproduction of vulnerability among aging heroin users within community-based rehabilitation. Innovation in Aging, 9(8), igaf066.View article ↗
- 05Song, A. & Jiang, J. Coercive rehabilitation and therapeutic control: How the police navigate the penal-welfare nexus in Chinese drug governance. Policing & Society, 35(9), 1203–1218.View article ↗
- 06Jiang, J. & Song, A. Making the enforcement rehabilitative: Penal welfarism and emotional labor of police officers in Chinese drug policing. Criminology & Criminal Justice.View article ↗
- 07Song, A. & He, J. ‘Nothing but…stuff being played with’: Body-constructed narratives of drug-trafficking young girls. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse.View article ↗
- 08Song, A., Li, K., Han, P., & Yao, H. Tracing, stabilizing, storytelling: How social workers assemble recovery for people who have mental health disorders. Journal of Social Work.View article ↗
2024
- 01Song, A., Zhu, C., & Liu, Z. ‘No ability to choose freedom’: A qualitative study on people who use drugs’ experiences of compulsory isolation treatment. Addiction Research & Theory.View article ↗
- 02Jiang, J., & Song, A. Strong control and weak service: Enforcing drug treatment in China. Journal of Drug Issues, 55(3), 379–400.View article ↗
- 03Song, A. Multiple logics and inconsistent identities of people who use drugs. PKU Journal of Sociology, 3(1), 90.
06Academic Service
Editorial Board
Contemporary Drug Problems
Proof Editor
The Journal of Chinese Sociology
07Community Service
The Glen Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre
康复咨询
过瘾同伴小组
协调员／协助创办
启福社会服务中心
实习社工、研究助理
成都新同伴社会服务中心
实习社工
成都爱达讯社会服务中心（法国驻中）
实习社工