*CFP: Toxic legacies, global pollutants: anthropological and historical
perspectives on the chemical Anthropocene*
*Durham University, June 29th - 30th 2017*
Environmentalists have recognised the impact of synthetic chemicals on
world ecosystems since the 1960 – though to date chemicals have not
featured prominently in discussions of the Anthropocene. New research
suggests, however, that synthetic chemicals have had greater impacts on
anthropogenic global change than CO2 emissions, nutrient pollution, habitat
destruction, and biodiversity loss. How can anthropology and history
contribute local perspectives to understandings of our ‘chemical’ age?
Taking up Chris Hann's call for a scholarly engagement with the
Anthropocene that goes beyond ‘speculative imagining,’ this symposium aims
for an ethnographically and historically grounded exploration of the modern
chemicals and toxic pollutants contributing to global change and the
toxicological traditions used to understand them. The symposium marks the
end of a three-year research project into pesticides and global health,
funded by the Wellcome Trust. Contributions are invited from anthropology,
history, and the critical medical humanities to reflect on the continuing
polyvalence of poison in the chemical Anthropocene.
In addition to the themes suggested in the attached CFP, paper proposals
may wish to consider,
· The relationship between chemical poisons and pollutants and
historical change across time, running up to, and into, the Anthropocene;
· The relationship between chemical poisons and pollutants and
social relationships in different times and places, especially as they
might be illuminated by Eurasian toxicological theories;
· The emergence of medical, legal, environmental, and political
toxicologies in response to wider economic and political conditions, and
the role of toxicology in producing such conditions;
· The development of ‘post-Paracelsian’ toxicologies in response to
newly identified chemical threats such as endocrine disruptors;
· The appearance and practice of body burden monitoring and
environmental biomonitoring as both a professional concern and individual
consumption choice.
Please send a 300 word abstract to Tom Widger ([log in to unmask]) no
later than 30th April 2017. Selected speakers will produce a full paper to
share with discussants and other speakers around two weeks before the
event. A selection of presenters will be invited to contribute their
papers to an edited collection. Thanks to the Wellcome Trust,
accommodation will be provided and (economy class) travel costs will be
reimbursed for all invited speakers.
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