Paper short abstract:

In Alaska, the destructive impacts of pollution upon Yup'ik onto-epistemological groundings have the potential to reshape the reciprocity between humans and their more-than-human kin. How have chemical agents reshaped Yup'ik cosmology, personhood, and the cycle of life and death in Toksook Bay?

Paper long abstract:

The Circumpolar North is one of the most polluted regions on the planet, with the destructive impact of chemical agents increasingly exacerbated by rapid environmental change (Jamail 2019, O’Reilly 2016). However, in Alaskan coastal villages such as Toksook Bay the effects of pollution are not simply physical, but deeply emotional and spiritual as they alter traditional subsistence patterns that are crucial to the onto-epistemological groundings of Indigenous Yup'ik community members. In Yup'ik cosmology, animals give themselves over to hunters who treat them with respect as persons, within a framework of collaborative reciprocity in which the immortality and rebirth of both the human and more-than-human soul is central. However, offshore drilling, oil spills, and the acidification of ocean waters mean that the animals that many hunt and eat often contain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in their fat, which are then retained within the bodies of those who consume them. What role do these pollutants play in an animist cosmology, such as that of the Yupiit people, if any? How do they impact personhood and the web of reciprocal relations between humans and more-than-humans? What of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth - where do they sit within this? Following Eugene Thacker's (2005) line of inquiry, are they a kind of "other-than–life", a "becoming non-living" that alters the flow of this cycle? This paper will provide a discussion of the theoretical reflections that have informed my evolving PhD research in Toksook Bay thus far.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how Taranto residents reconcile pollution awareness with attachment to their city. It introduces 'co-noticing' as a lens for understanding this complex relationship, highlighting its role in fostering community resilience and new perspectives on justice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper problematises environmental justice-based narratives of pollution in a community home to Europe’s largest steel factory (Taranto, Italy). Based on auto/ethnographic research conducted between 2020 and 2023, we reflect on how residents of Taranto’s most polluted neighbourhood engage with processes of worldmaking that are both in contrast with and premised on the affect of industrial toxicants. These contrasting propositions co-exist in the culturally resonant rhetorical question “ce me ne futte a me?” (what do I care?), often used by study participants to dismiss claims about the gravity of pollution and assert their belonging to the place.

Following Eve Tuck’s (2009) call to ‘suspend damage’, we argue that “ce me ne futte a me” is a cultural idiom bridging an awareness of the harm of pollution with a strong sense of attachment to the city. We propose co-noticing as a conceptual lens that protects what would otherwise be erased by a unilinear narrative of harm. Co-noticing allows residents not to focus entirely on pollution, but neither to ignore it completely, implying an understanding of toxicity as imbricated with powerful experiences of belonging and community-making. Co-noticing enables an understanding of why attachments persist in places that dominant discourses deem to be fit only for sacrifice and abandonment. The strategies of co-noticing observed in this paper are an attempt to call these neglected relationalities into being, creating new value for the community as a space where new ideas about the world and justice can be generated.

Paper short abstract:

Chlordecone is an insecticide extensively used in the banana plantations of Martinique from 1973 to 1993. This paper explores the ways in which experiences of toxicity associated with this substance have been shaped by violence, suffering, and practices of resistance.

Paper long abstract:

Chlordecone, an insecticide, has lingered in the soils of the French overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique due to its extensive application in banana plantations to combat banana borer weevils (charançons du bananier) from 1973 to 1993. Since its ban, numerous epidemiological studies, social upheavals, activist movements, political debates and legal battles have underscored potential links between various health issues, including certain types of cancer, in the Caribbean population and the prolonged occupational exposure to its chemical toxicity. The biomedical reductionism and political biases of French authorities, as perceived by Martinicans, in attributing health issues and forms of exploitation to this chemical compound, along with the social anguish and political problems triggered by chlordecon's presence and its ties to the plantation system, exemplify the complex interplay of historical and contemporary forms of violence. These stem from post-slavery and post-colonial contexts as well as current socio-economic challenges, deeply affecting the daily lives of Caribbean people and heightening their concerns about residing in a polluted environment. Considering these complex dynamics, this paper delves into adversities and emotional entanglements associated with chlordecone's usage and presence in the environment. By exploring the bodily experiences connected to this chemical compound, we seek to illustrate how the practices, ideas, discourses, and experiences of Martinicans have been influenced and reshaped by genealogies of toxicity. Furthermore, our analysis of practices and acts of resistance against political and economic exploitation offers a detailed perspective on the persistent social, political and economic effects of chlordecone within the Caribbean population.

Paper short abstract:

Based on an ongoing chemoethnography, this paper proposes exploring the relationship between scientific production and the experience of β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β-HCH) contamination in the Valle del Sacco (Italy), focusing on the tension between land remediation and the 'remediation' of bodies.

Paper long abstract:

In the 1950s, the Valle del Sacco, encompassing the metropolitan area of Rome and the province of Frosinone, Italy, became part of the incentive programs of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno d'Italia, attracting both Italian and foreign investments. The environmental impact of this industrialization became apparent in 2005 when non-compliant concentrations of β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β-HCH), were found in the milk of various livestock farms. β-HCH is a byproduct ad an isomer of Lindane, the organochlorine pesticide produced by Snia Caffaro Srl in Colleferro and extensively used in global agriculture in the past decades. The contamination source was the Sacco River, coursing through the valley, resulting from the illicit disposal of industrial waste, thus contaminating the entire food chain. Subsequently, the Valle del Sacco basin was designated as a National Interest Site for Reclamation (SIN). However, nearly twenty years later, reclamation initiatives remain incomplete.

For over a decade, a biochemistry research team at the Department of Biochemical Sciences "A. Rossi Fanelli" at Sapienza University of Rome has been investigating the toxic effects of this molecule on various cell lines, defining its spectrum of carcinogenic action, and exploring the protective role of natural bioactive compounds.

This paper, rooted in ongoing ethnographic research within the team's laboratory and in the Valle del Sacco, aims to explore the relationship between scientific production and the experience of contamination (Shapiro& Kirksey 2017; Murphy 2021) with a particular focus on the tension between remediating the territory and "remediating" the bodies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper conceptually explores how acid mine drainage in the Peruvian Andes, resulting from the interaction between minerals and bacteria, gives rise to novel forms of multispecies collaborations for phytoremediation, while also raising questions about environmental justice and violence.

Paper long abstract:

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is one of the leading causes of water pollution in the world. An common externality of the mining industry, AMD occurs when subterranean minerals intersect with water, oxygen, and, notably for this paper, acidophilic bacteria—named for their ability to thrive in highly acidic environments. These chemosocial interactions between minerals and microorganisms triggers the release of heavy metals into the environment, yielding severe ecosystem consequences but also fostering unexpected alliances for bioremediation.

In the Callejón de Huaylas, a region in the Peruvian Andes impacted by AMD as a direct consequence of mining industry and glacial retreat due to climate change, local organizations and researchers are exploring the potential of specific plant species to concentrate and stabilize heavy metals in water streams and soil—a process commonly known as phytoremediation. These innovative collaborations between local activists, scientists, plants, and bacteria unveil intricate multispecies entanglements that redefine the very concept of health in AMD contexts. Yet, these collaborations also prompt inquiries into environmental justice and accountability for decades of extractivist regimes and ecological degradation.

This paper seeks to conceptually explore the meaning of health when considering the complex relations among humans, bacteria, heavy metals, and plants in highly polluted environments. By introducing forms of acidophilic alliances and examining the responses they provoke in the Callejón de Huaylas, the paper reflects on how practices for evidencing and politicizing pollution, coupled with the multispecies collaborations emerging from these practices, are also deeply embedded in ongoing processes of environmental violence and territorial exploitation.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation investigates the tensions between antibiotic and probiotic approaches to microbes and argues that the framing of microbes as enemies or allies provides specific modes of interspecies relations and possibilities of action, reaction, and intervention in chemically altered times.

Paper long abstract:

“At the microscale, the organism doesn’t know or care which […] environment it’s in” tells me a scientist as we discuss how a microbe can be both a dreadful pathogen and a phenomenal ally at the same time. To her, microbes are tiny metabolic units, continuously exchanging chemicals and transforming their microbial environments; and yet, at the molecular level, an infected tissue or the surface of a rock do not look any different. This reductionist and molecular thinking substantiates and uproots dichotomies such as beneficial and detrimental, toxic and nourishing, damaging and repairing, living and dying.

In this presentation, I look into the research and practices connected to bioremediation (the deployment of living organism to repair a damaged ecosystem) as an entry point to discuss the politics and poetics of living and dying in relation to chemicals. As contemporary microbiology wrestles between an approach to microbes as enemies to be eradicated and one that sees microbes as useful “tools” or powerful allies, I wonder how the way microbes are framed might provide specific modes of interspecies relation and possibilities of action, reaction, and intervention in chemically altered times. By drawing on my ongoing ethnographic engagement with microbiologists’ practices and discourses, I take metabolism as a window into how the tension between antibiotic and probiotic approaches produces and governs different types of chemosocialities in which agency is redistributed across different spatial and temporal scales.

Paper short abstract:

This paper traces the co-constitution of medical and social ambivalence of tominersen, a first-in-class drug for Huntington's disease.

Paper long abstract:

In 2017, Roche Pharmaceuticals began enrolment in a clinical trial for the drug tominersen. Tominersen was a first-in-class therapeutic for Huntington’s disease (HD), a rare late-onset genetic neurodegenerative disease which currently has neither treatment nor cure. Following promising Phase 1 trials – and a great deal of promotion from Roche and various HD patient organisations – it was anticipated that tominersen would be the first real breakthrough in HD therapeutics. Tominersen was developed to be disease-modifying, aiming to delay symptom onset and severity, and in doing so prolong both life and quality of life. However, in April 2021, the tominersen trial was discontinued due to lack of efficacy and potential harm to participants. Prior to this, the relationship between Roche and major HD patient organisations and researchers had been largely positive and viewed as reciprocal; following the discontinuation, many in the HD community began to openly express anger, mistrust, and disapproval of Roche. HD researchers expressed concern about Roche’s intentions and lack of care and scientific rigour. This paper traces how the medical and social ambivalence of tominersen were constantly altered and co-constituted from 2017 to 2021, creating multiple and mutable forms of chemosociality.

Paper short abstract:

Antibiotics and benzodiazepines are ubiquitous pharmaceutical substances in modern biomedicine. We follow everyday practices of their (de)prescription and (non)use, and ask how these (re)enact moral worlds and chemo-socialities–around ideas of normalness, risky subjectivities, and good citizenship.

Paper long abstract:

Pharmaceuticals often remain uneasy solutions to a host of medical, political, and social ills, promising opportunities for relief while also portending novel, unforeseen risks. Substances like antibiotics for infection control or benzodiazepines for mental health care embody these fundamental ambivalences inherent in the increasing pharmaceuticalization of (public) health. Both ubiquitous substances in use and circulation, they act as “infrastructures” (Chandler 2019) of modern biomedicine, while antibiotic resistance and the risk of addiction, respectively, also underscore the deathly potential of their pharmaco-chemical worlds. As such, prescribers and users alike often conceive of antibiotics and benzodiazepines either as near-invisible pharmaceutical supplies or as overdetermined by their potential risks, fueling efforts of “de-prescribing.” But pharmaceutical substances are never independent of the contexts in which they “intra-act” (Barad 2003), never just one thing and never inane, as highlighted by anthropologists’ notions of “fluidity” (Hardon & Sanabria 2017) or “toxic worlding” (Nading 2020). Based on ethnographic research in Austria, we engage with the situated meanings and effectiveness of antibiotics and benzodiazepines, asking how moral worlds and chemo-socialities–such as ideas of normalness, risky subjectivities, and good citizenship–are (re)made in the mundane practices of prescribing and using. Specifically, we consider such practices in terms of de-prescribing and non-use, and how the refusing, rejecting, and opposing of substances enact different and often ambivalent chemo-socialities amid calls for “choosing wisely” and sustainability.

Paper short abstract:

Exploring the ambivalence of pharmaceuticals in governing life and death, this paper traces the global movements of sodium pentobarbital. It reassembles its socio-cultural biography, exploring its role in shaping life-death worlds across socio-economic, racial, and ethnic lines.

Paper long abstract:

Against the background of pharmaceuticals as ambivalent technologies engaged in the production of life-death worlds, shaping different forms of governance of life and death, and upholding and co-producing global inequalities of lives, this paper traces the global movements of sodium pentobarbital (SP) and its local usage in bio- and necropolitical practices. SP, first synthesised in the 1930s, transitioned from a popular sedative to a drug central to death-inducing practices. These practices, linked by their common use of SP, represent unique intersections of medical, legal, and political technologies that unevenly distribute life and death across diverse geographies, groups, and people. The disparities in how SP is used across these contexts underscore the complexities of its global circulation and highlights the implications of the use of pharmaceuticals by state institutions and private organisations to produce or facilitate death. Based on ongoing research that combines different qualitative methodologies to follow the global flows and local applications of SP across time and space, this paper reassembles its socio-cultural biography to understand SP’s role in co-producing life-death worlds as spaces of sociality where life and death are negotiated across intersectional lines of socio-economic status, race, and ethnicity.