Author Archives: Alex Zahara

A Bibliography of Trash Animals

Gulls. Pigeons. Rats. Lice. These ‘trash animals’ live alongside waste, filth, ruination and decay. Attitudes, behaviour and infrastructure aimed at dealing with ‘trash animals’ tell us a lot about systems of discarding. The following is a bibliography of ‘trash animals’ research.

Queering chemicals (EDCs): A bibliography

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) are a class of environmental toxicants that may impact sex, gender, and sexuality. Here is our bibliography on queering EDCs.

When your research is attacked

Attacks on research have become routinized and institutionalized. Here is our step-by-step guide on what to do if you and your research are attacked.

The Dirt

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 October 2018.

Against Risk Perception

The deficit model frames public controversies about contamination as a lack of scientific understanding or trust in government institutions. People are seen as deficient in knowledge about an issue, erasing local, community, and personal expertise.

Difference in the Anthropocene: Indigenous Environmentalism in the Face of Settler Colonialism

Both Todd and Whyte argue that achieving climate justice for and by Indigenous people requires addressing the ways in which global environmental change is intimately connected with— and in fact is predicated upon— practices of settler colonialism.

CFP: Technical Landscapes: Aesthetics and the Environment in the History of Science and Art

The conference will address ‘technical lands’, sites where global knowledge practices and aesthetic categories have converged to literally transform the physical geography of the land.

Harvard, April 6-8, 2017.

Ethnographic Refusal: A How to Guide

Refusal is a method whereby researchers and research participants together decide not to make particular information available for use within the academy. Here are some strategies for identifying and collaborating with research refusals.

Anthropocene Adjustments: Discarding the Technosphere

The technosphere refers to a new layer on the planet made up of “the interlinked set of communication, transportation, bureaucratic and other systems that act to metabolize fossil fuels and other energy resources.” We write this post to share some lingering thoughts on this theme, including what we think critical discard studies (CDS) might contribute to the technosphere discussion.

Refusal as Research Method in Discard Studies

Ethnographic refusal is a practice by which researchers and research participants together decide not to make particular information available for use within the academy. Its purpose is not to bury information, but to ensure that communities are able to respond to issues on their own terms.