Josh Reno's Lecture

19/04/2015 04:56

In March Dr. Joshua Reno from Binghamton University, State University of New York, visited our department in Pilsen and presented an interesting paper entitled "The Blasphemous Life of American Landfills".

Abstract:

According to Eugene Thacker (2011), "Blasphemous life is the life that is living but should not be living." American sanitary landfills are designed to encase discards in a state of suspended animation away from society and nature, to prevent our wastes from threatening human and non-human lives with contamination. And yet, landfills produce such blasphemous life in abundance. Paradoxically, landfills can only contain the threat of pollution by selectively exposing some people and environments to waste on behalf of others. In this talk I will discuss the troubling bio-social assemblages that landfills give rise to and their political consequences. In doing so, I will ask: can we find a way to dwell with blasphemous life?