Contribution short abstract:

Bhasan Char, a sedimentary island hosting displaced Rohingyas, explores the politics of sediments as active agents in governance, ecology, and humanitarianism, examines how materialities of sediments mediates affective relations, shaping life, infrastructures, and power in precarious environments.

Contribution long abstract:

Bhasan Char, a precarious island formed through sedimentation in the Bay of Bengal, has become a contested site of governance, ecological negotiation, and humanitarian intervention. Serving as a resettlement camp for displaced Rohingya refugees, the island is marked by high salinity, unstable landforms, and fragile infrastructures. This paper examines the materiality of sediments as active agents in shaping governance, politics, and ecological processes in this fractious environment. Far from being inert particles, sediments play crucial roles in mediating relations between human and non-human, shaping agricultural possibilities, mangrove growth, and the built environment of the camp. These materialities intersect with the imaginaries and interventions of camp administrators, humanitarian organizations, and refugees, producing complex dynamics of care, control, and contention. The analysis situates sediment within the broader frameworks of political ecology, infrastructure, and affect, exploring how ecological processes and affective engagements co-constitute the lived realities of Bhasan Char. This research asks how sediments mediate relationships between administrators, refugees, and the island’s ecology, and what happens when sediment resists human interventions, opening new possibilities and tensions. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this paper contributes to discussions of politics as affective and material encounters, foregrounding sediments’ agency and its entanglement with political subjectivities and ecological relationalities. By engaging with sediments’ affective and material dimensions, this study illuminates the intricate intersections of power, ecology, and humanitarianism in precarious environments.