As part of the Sustainable Futures Speaker Series, Dr. Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins will present a webinar on “Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine” on Thursday, September 30, from 5:30-7 p.m. Register here.

This talk offers an analysis unusual in the study of Palestine: it begins with the environmental, infrastructural, and aesthetic context in which Palestinians forge their lives, naming that context a “waste siege.” Author Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins suggests that to speak of waste siege is to describe a series of conditions: from smelling wastes to negotiating military infrastructures, from biopolitical forms of colonial rule to experiences of governmental abandonment, from obvious targets of resistance to confusion over responsibility for the burdensome objects of daily life. She focuses on waste as an experience of everyday life that is continuous with, but not a result only of, occupation. Tracing Palestinians’ experiences of wastes over the past decade, and their improvisations for mitigating the effects of this siege, she explores how multiple authorities governing the West Bank — including municipalities, the Palestinian Authority, international aid organizations, and Israel — rule by waste siege, whether intentionally or not.

In her book of the same title, Stamatopoulou-Robbins depicts waste’s constant returns, challenging both common formulations of waste as “matter out of place” and as the ontological opposite of the environment, by suggesting instead that waste siege be understood as an ecology of “matter with no place to go.” Waste siege thus not only describes a stateless Palestine, but also becomes a metaphor for our besieged planet.

Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bard College with interests in infrastructure, waste, environment, colonialism, austerity, and platform capitalism. Her first book, Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine (Stanford, 2019), won the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Book Award (2020). Her current book, Homing Austerity: Airbnb in Athens (upcoming from Duke University Press) examines how Airbnb is transforming the relationship between subjectivity, real estate, work, and aesthetics.

The Sustainable Futures Speaker Series stimulates interdisciplinary collaboration around issues related to energy, the environment, and society. All lectures are free and open to the public, and are sponsored by the Schatz Energy Research Center, the Environment & Community graduate program, and the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at Humboldt State.

Please visit schatzcenter.org/events for the full season lineup and to read about other webinar events. Questions? Email envcomm1@humboldt.edu.