Panel I

Wed, October 6, 8:00 to 9:30am, 4S 2021 Virtual, 8

Chair: Jessica Caporusso

Discussant: Zoe Wool, University of Toronto

“Your Home is Your Biosphere”: Legacies of Gender and Race in the Domesticity of Alternative Technology - Emma Schroeder, University of Maine

Toxic Nutrients: The Politics of Harmful Algal Bloom Mitigation in Lake Erie - Gebby Keny, Rice University

Toxic Ash, Hopeful Leaves: Brazilian Sugarcane Histories and Biofuel Futures - Katie Ulrich, Rice University

Discussant Remarks by Zoë Wool

Discussant remarks by Zoë Wool, presented at 4S 2021 Toxic Goodness Panel I (Ocotber 6, 2021)Read more

“Your Home is Your Biosphere”: Legacies of Gender and Race in the Domesticity of Alternative Technology

When Sean Wellesley-Miller argued that “your home is your biosphere” in 1977, the alternative technology movement had garnered support from grassroots activists, national governments, and international agencies. Proponents imagined that constructing alternatives to ecologically destructive...Read more

Toxic Nutrients: The Politics of Harmful Algal Bloom Mitigation in Lake Erie

Each summer, several hundred square miles of Lake Erie’s southwest basin are covered in a toxic pea-green slime that threatens drinking water supplies and depletes oxygen levels within lake waters, causing mass wildlife die-offs. These increasingly common and disruptive events are referred to as...Read more

Toxic Ash, Hopeful Leaves: Brazilian Sugarcane Histories and Biofuel Futures

Sugarcane scientists and industry actors in Brazil are working to expand the volume and scope of sugar-based fuels, chemicals, and other materials like bioplastic. They aim to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate problems like global warming through this versatile plant....Read more

Panel II

Thu, October 7, 8:00 to 9:30am, 4S 2021 Virtual, 5

Chair: Duygu Kaşdoğan

Discussant: Timothy Neale, Deakin University

Lesser Flamingo Life and Death: Nourishing Toxicity, ‘Generous’ Mines and Metabolic Transitions in Kimberley, South Africa - Carina Truyts, Sol Plaatje University

An Extractive Science? Complicated Industries and Crude Natures - Zsuzsanna Dominika Ihar, University of Sydney

Caring For and Living With Extractive Legacies in Northern Canada - Caitlynn Beckett, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Rethinking Plastic Realities: A call for a well-being approach to understanding human-plastic entanglements - Jessica Vandenberg, University of Washington; marlena skrobe; Jill Fallman, University of Washington; Karin Otsuka, University of Washington; Ivy Serwaa Gyimah Akuoko, University of Cape Coast; Suzy An, University of Washington

Lesser Flamingo Life and Death: Nourishing Toxicity, ‘Generous’ Mines and Metabolic Transitions in Kimberley, South Africa

What makes a worthwhile object of care? Early in 2019 lesser Flamingo chick euphoria took hold of the small historical diamond mining city of Kimberley in central South Africa. A rapid, publicly driven rescue operation mobilized in response to the plight of thousands of baby flamingos, abandoned...Read more

An Extractive Science? Complicated Industries and Crude Natures

221 hectares of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil reimagined as a promissory garden bed. The renaturalisation and bioremediation of Qara Şəhər (Black City) –a historic industrial district of Baku, Azerbaijan–, was launched by state and corporate investors in 2011. The intended outcome of the...Read more

An Extractive Science? Complicated Industries and Crude Natures - Zsuzsanna Dominika Ihar

This is a working paper to be presented at 4S 2021 Conference in the Panel "Toxic Goodness"Read more

Caring For and Living With Extractive Legacies in Northern Canada

The closure and waste management phases of a mine’s lifecycle have complex socio-economic and cultural impacts on local communities. Yet, the ongoing community care dimensions of these waste landscapes typically receive less attention than engineered containment solutions. Remediation projects...Read more

CBeckett_4S 2021_Presentation Paper

Presentation paper for 4S 2021, entitled "Caring For and Living With Extractive Legacies in Northern Canada"Read more

CBeckett_4S 2021_Presentation Slides

4S 2021 Presentation Slides, entitled "Caring For and Living with Extractive Legacies in Northern CanadaRead more

Rethinking Plastic Realities: A call for a well-being approach to understanding human-plastic entanglements

Plastics have emerged as the omnipresent material and challenge of the Anthropocene. Since the mid 20th century, a staggering amount of plastics have been produced, manufactured, used, disposed of and accumulated as waste in the environment. Despite their benefits, plastics are threatening the...Read more

PANEL III

Thu, October 7, 11:30am to 1:00pm, 4S 2021 Virtual, 5

Chair: Katie Ulrich

Discussant: Kim Fortun, University of California Irvine

Quicksilver’s Tales: Alchemical Histories and Contaminated Legacies - Ruth Goldstein

Tracing Critical Minerals Genealogies through Arizona’s Emerging Helium Boom - Kirk Jalbert, Arizona State University; J Richter, Arizona State University; Noa Bruhis, Arizona State University

From Mining to Phytomining: Bioinspired Practices and Hopeful Forms of Life in a Contaminated World - Lauren Kamili, EHESS/LAS/ADEME

Residual Ecologies: Finding Life within Extraction - Sebastian Ureta, Universidad Alberto Hurtado; Patricio Flores, University of Warwick, UK

Quicksilver’s Tales: Alchemical Histories and Contaminated Legacies

This paper examines current extractive rainforest economies in the context of alchemical histories in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Peru, with a focus on the Amazonian region of Madre de Dios. As part of an ongoing collaborative research project with gold miners,...Read more

Presentation Paper - Quicksilver’s Tales: Alchemical Histories and Contaminated Legacies - Ruth Goldstein

4S paper: Quicksilver’s Tales: Alchemical Histories and Contaminated Legacies - Ruth GoldsteinRead more

Tracing Critical Minerals Genealogies through Arizona’s Emerging Helium Boom

In 2018 the U.S. Department of Interior took the unprecedented step of publishing a list of minerals deemed “critical” to national security and economic development. Alongside cobalt, uranium, and lithium, helium earned a place as the only gas included on this list. Helium is one of the...Read more

Presentation Paper - Tracing Critical Minerals Genealogies through Arizona’s Emerging Helium Boom - Kirk Jalbert, Arizona State University; J Richter, Arizona State University; Noa Bruhis, Arizona State University

Paper presentation: Tracing Critical Minerals Genealogies through Arizona’s Emerging Helium Boom - Kirk Jalbert, Arizona State University; J Richter, Arizona State University; Noa Bruhis, Arizona State UniversityRead more

From Mining to Phytomining: Bioinspired Practices and Hopeful Forms of Life in a Contaminated World

The former zinc mines in the village of Saint-Laurent-Le-Minier, located in the Gard region of southern France, have been closed since the 1990s. A jewel of French industry for a time, the mines and their closure have left neither the environment, whose waters and soils are now heavily...Read more

Presentation Paper - From Mining to Phytomining: Bioinspired Practices and Hopeful Forms of Life in a Contaminated World - Lauren Kamili, EHESS/LAS/ADEME

Paper - From Mining to Phytomining: Bioinspired Practices and Hopeful Forms of Life in a Contaminated World - Lauren Kamili, EHESS/LAS/ADEMERead more

Residual Ecologies: Finding Life within Extraction

The Carén River is a water stream located near Alhue, in central Chile. It would be completely unremarkable if it were not for one key aspect: it carries water throughout the year. Being located in a semi-arid region experiencing a decade-long megadrought, this characteristic has turned...Read more