We are pleased to announce the next session of The Technological Globalization from Below Online Seminar Series, scheduled for Wednesday, March 11th, from 15h to 16h30 (CET, Paris time), online.
Our guests, Jatin Dua (Associate Prof., anthropology, Univ. of Michigan), and Naor H. Ben-Yehoyada (Associate Prof., anthropology, Columbia University) will present a talk entitled
« Seasick : Toxic Cargo and its afterlives in the Red Sea ».
Abstract
In the middle of the Cold War, various state officials, politicians, middlemen, and mafiosi operated in transporting toxic (chemical & radioactive) waste from Italian ports to Venezuela, Nigeria, Lebanon, Syria, and Somalia. Public protest in some of the receiving countries triggered, at least to some extent, repatriation. In some cases, ships carrying toxic material were drowned rather than directed to foreign ports.The circuit stood at the center of several Italian Parliamentary investigative commissions (with self-described inconclusive reports in 1995, in 2001, and in 2018) and numerous journalistic and judicial investigations in more than twenty Prosecutor Offices throughout Italy. Aspects of the circuit interested UN and international environmental organizations reports.We focus on the structure, dynamics, and ramifications of this circuit. What forms of transnational political relations mobilized to facilitate the transit and depositing of toxic waste, and how did the ever changing circuit reshape those relations ? What traces did such toxic material leave ? What damaging effects did it have on humans and non-humans both in places of transit and where it was deposited ? How did erstwhile and ongoing colonial and imperial relations shape locations, actions, and transactions along the route ? What political imaginaries of shared fate, reparation, responsibility, and evidence motivate the aftermath of this dumping of fateful waste ?
Zoom link
https://u-paris.zoom.us/j/891095596...
Meeting ID 891 0955 9624
Code 018252
The yearly program is below, we hope to see you there.
The organizing team :
Nassima ABDELGHAFOUR, Javed Mohammad ALAM, Mady BARBEITAS, Henry CHAVEZ, Renata FREITAS MACHADO, Bérénice GIRARD, Sofia GUEVARA, Mahamat Nour Moussa ILYASS, Koichi KAMEDA, James Christopher MIZES, Cecilia PASSANTI, Yves-Marie RAULT-CHODANKAR, Mathieu QUET and Aamod UTPAL
PROGRAM 25-26
- 15 October 2025, 17 h : Andrea Ballestero, Anthropology Department, University of Southern California. Online session.
- 10 December 2025 : Myriam Amri, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University
- 14 January 2026 : Liz Chee, Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- 11 February 2026 : Guilherme Moura, Département d’Anthropologie sociale, Université de São Paulo.
- 11 March 2026, 3pm : Jatin Dua, Anthropology, Michigan University & Naor H. Ben-Yehoyada, Anthropology, Columbia University
- 8 April 2026, 10am : Robyn D’Avignon, Department of Anthropology and Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
- 28-29 May 2026 : Study day on the forest with Eduardo Romero Dianderas, Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University (and others !). on site : UMR Devsoc, Nogent sur Marne
- 10 June 2026 : (to be confirmed)