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SUMMARY:Waste : Methodologies - Dr Eiko Soga (Fine Art\, Oxford)\, Aishwar
 ya Mukhopadhyay (Anthropology\, Oxford)\, Mwangi Mwaura (Geography\, Oxfor
 d)\, Dr Martha Swift (English\, Oxford)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251023T120000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251023T133000
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b71219f6-4105-414b-8cb7-b050e0dfa821/
DESCRIPTION:In collaboration with Dr Ruth Ezra and Dr Francesca Borgo (Art
  History\, University of St Andrews)\, this seminar hosts early career res
 earchers to present creative methodological approaches to studying waste m
 aterials from the archive to the field: \n\nAishwarya Mukhopadhyay (Anthro
 pology\, Oxford). Following the Dustbin: Stories of Waste and Governance i
 n Siliguri\, India.\nThe “social life of materials” offers a powerful 
 lens\, yet studying waste through it quickly falters: waste is too dispers
 ed\, multiple\, and unruly for a single trajectory to be traced by a lone 
 researcher. I turn instead to the dustbin as an anchor—an object meant t
 o discipline urban life yet constantly escaping its script. In Siliguri\, 
 India\, state-issued bins spiral into improvisation: repurposed for storag
 e\, ignored\, or withheld altogether. Following the dustbin makes visible 
 a unique methodology—stories of waste that expose not only material live
 s but also the limits of governing them through aesthetics\, bureaucracy\,
  and fragile infrastructures.\n\nDr. Eiko Soga (Fine Art\, Oxford). Tradit
 ional Ainu Cooking Among More-Than-Human World in Samani in Hokkaido\, Jap
 an.\nFocusing on indigenous Ainu food culture among more-than-human world 
 in Japan\, I will discuss Ainu foraging and cooking processes that respect
  animals\, insects\, and whole natural environment. Through this I will di
 scuss an ecological world that embodies waste free approach to life. Based
  on my time in Samani in Hokkaido\, Japan\, I will share wisdoms and lived
  memories that I learn from the Ainu community there.\n\nMwangi Mwaura (Ge
 ography\, Oxford). Sales Dairies: Mathematics of Harm\, Evidence of Planet
 ary/Environmental Stewardship.\nThrough sales diaries by traders of second
 -hand clothes at Gikomba Market\, Nairobi\, I will share methodological in
 sights learnt from ongoing sell-along ethnography. In this research on sec
 ond-hand clothes in Nairobi and the UK\, I have come to appreciate the rec
 ords traders keep as calculations of items they get in bales from the West
 . In these calculations\, one can follow the harm that is discarded into c
 ountries in the Global South\, such as Kenya\, while also seeing the Plane
 tary/Environmental Stewardship these traders enact when they sort things\,
  including into the lowest value. The sorting determines what happens to t
 he commodity\, including how it will be reintroduced into a value chain.\n
 \nDr Martha Swift (English\, Oxford). Rubbish\, Recycling and Regeneration
 : Chinese Science Fiction and Creating with Waste.\nMy recent work on wast
 e thinks about its ontological instability and creative potential. In my t
 alk\, I will give a short overview of my research on waste in contemporary
  Chinese science fiction and the ways in which award-winning texts like Wa
 ste Tide and Folding Beijing destabilise the theoretical concepts of codif
 ication and recycling. These and other texts introduce ‘regeneration’ 
 as an alternative theoretical—and possibly creative—approach to waste.
  I have been thinking about how to explore this creative potential beyond 
 academic argument\, and I will outline some of the waste-based\, collabora
 tive land-art and public performance initiatives that I have been engaged 
 in over the last year. \n\n\nSpeakers:\nDr Eiko Soga (Fine Art\, Oxford)\,
  Aishwarya Mukhopadhyay (Anthropology\, Oxford)\, Mwangi Mwaura (Geography
 \, Oxford)\, Dr Martha Swift (English\, Oxford)
LOCATION:Seminar room 63
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b71219f6-4105-414b-8cb7-b050e0dfa821/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Waste : Methodologies - Dr Eiko Soga (Fine Art\, Oxford)\
 , Aishwarya Mukhopadhyay (Anthropology\, Oxford)\, Mwangi Mwaura (Geograph
 y\, Oxford)\, Dr Martha Swift (English\, Oxford)
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