Discard Studies is an interdisciplinary field of research that takes systems of waste and wasting as its topic of study, including but beyond conventional notions of trash and garbage. To keep practitioners up to date, Discard Studies publishes The Dirt, a monthly compilation of recent publications, positions, opportunities, and calls for proposals in the field. Here is The Dirt for May 2022.

Special Note: Discard Studies offers a public Zotero library of references collected from The Dirt.

The Zotero library is updated with the publication of each new edition of The Dirt and can be found on the Resources page.

Anyone can access the Zotero library, whether or not they use Zotero software. For those not already familiar with Zotero, it is a free and open-source software. More about Zotero here.

Recent Discard Studies Posts

• Sorting It Out: Sustainability in Higher Education by Kathy Zhang
• Acts of Occlusion by Korede Akinkunmi
• Discard Studies Staffing Changes
• Copyright on the Farm by MC Forelle
• Reading Lists: Residential Schools

Peer-reviewed Articles & Books

Note: If an article is behind a paywall, email the author. They are almost always authorized by copyright to distribute their own work.

We have begun posting the gender parity of The Dirt, especially given evidence that COVID-19 is increasing the skew in knowledge production to be ever more male, white, and childless. According to the Summers Gender Balance Assessment Tool, the bibliography for The Dirt in May 2022 is approximately 27.81% percent women-authored.

Reviews

• Caste and Nature: Dalits and Indian Environmental Politics; Mukul Sharma, Oxford University Press, 2018. // Reviewed by Shatam Ray
• Fueling Mexico: Energy and Environment, 1850-1950; Germán Vergara, Cambridge University Press. 2021 // Reviewed by
  Viridiana Hernandez Fernandez
• Transboundary Environmental Governance across the World’s Longest Border; Stephen Brooks, Andrea Olive, eds. University of Manitoba Press, 2022 // Reviewed by Molly Rozum

Media

• Waste Colonialism, Recycling, & Microplastics — Interview with Jesi Cruz Taylor, Revolutionary Left Radio || 23 May 2022
• Trash is His Muse: Meet the Sanitation Department’s Resident Artist — Profile of sTo Len, New York Times, 30 May 2022

Calls for Papers/Proposals/Submissions

• Global Challenges in Environmental Humanities. Bloomsbury Press.
• Integrated Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Management for Urban Resilience — special issue of Resources, Conservation & Recycling; deadline 30 June

Conferences & Symposia

• Undoing the Crisis | York University Graduate STS Conference; 3 June
• European Society for Environmental History Conference, Bristol, UK; 4-8 July

Positions

• SUNY New Cluster Hiring Initiative, multiple positions | Urban Sustainability | Water | Bioeconomy
• Full Time Lecturer, Interdisicplinary Studies | California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
• 3-year PhD fellowship at Medical Museion, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen
• Assistant Professor in Science & Technology Studies: Racial Justice and Intergroup Dialogue | Rensselaer; deadline 1 October
• Social Media Editor, World Wide Waste: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies; deadline 15 June

New Patrons

Discard Studies is funded, in part, by the generous patronage of our readers, via Patreon. New patrons include:

• Manisha Anantharaman. Thank you!
• Shosha Capps. Thank you!
• MYGray. Thank you!
• Lily Baum Pollans. Thank you!

If you have an item to add to The Dirt, please contact editors@discardstudies.com. 

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