Tuesday, February 16, 2021
8:00 p.m.
On Zoom
Laid to Waste: Invisible Flows and the Making of Place in the Inland Empire
By Brinda Sarathy, Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pitzer College
By inspiring discoveries to address global challenges, KAUSTians are honored to serve as a beacon of knowledge that bridges people and cultures for the betterment of humanity. With this aim in mind, Students for Sustainability created a platform for raising scientific engagement on the complexity of sustainability for the first time, which is a series of meetings called the Sustainability Seminars Series. Everyone is welcome.
You are invited to the first webinar of the 2021 Sustainability Seminar Series on February 16, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. entitled “Laid to Waste: Invisible Flows and the Making of Place in the Inland Empire” by Prof. Brinda Sarathy.
Abstract
Prof. Brinda Sarathy will discuss her current book project, which examines the history of the first Superfund site in California, the Stringfellow Acid Pits, to better understand how places are produced in the context of invisible flows: of toxics, of groundwater, and less told stories of social mobilization.
Drawing on archival material and interviews with community activists and government officials, this research explores how hazardous wastes are understood, rationalized, and managed by scientific experts to justify dumping; why policymakers overlooked groundwater contamination in spite of prevailing scientific knowledge; and how to make sense of the often heterogeneous and contradictory nature of local resistance to, and mobilization against, contamination by industrial waste.
Significantly, this work considers how institutions of expertise often exclude the experiences of those most exposed to harm. Despite deep and persistent uncertainties, authority figures have been called on to minimize concerns about hazardous substances, thus facilitating industrial, military, and economic expansion.
About the speaker
Brinda Sarathy is a professor of Environmental Analysis, Pitzer College and the director of Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern CA Sustainability. Sarathy received her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management in 2006 from the University of California, Berkeley. , and has held fellowships at The CUNY Graduate Center and the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UCMEXUS). Her research on pineros has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, the Rural Sociological Society, the Morris K. Udall Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
She is the author of three books and several articles on society and the environment, including natural resource management, labor, and environmental justice. She has received many outstanding awards including the prestigious American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship in 2020.
Should you have any questions, please contact us at s.square@kaust.edu.sa.