I was invited to this exciting workshop at the University of Tokyo in February as a discussant. Looks like there are other fellow anthropologists out there exploring the role of chemicals in making humans healthy and/or sick. Jump in if you’re interested in the topic and happen to be in the area!
UTokyo Cultural Anthropology Seminar／COVID-19 and Humanities International Symposium
Decomposing the Anthropocene
Exploring Chemical Ethics Beyond the Laboratory
Chemical ethics is often considered a nascent area in which chemists think of ethical guidelines for conducting chemical research. However, as recent debates on the Anthropocene and metabolism have made clear, it is not only chemists who produce, consume, and emit chemicals. Also, as the various studies in chemo-ethnography have revealed, attention to the distribution and dispersal of chemical substances in the environment has become essential when thinking about the lives of humans and non-humans. Therefore, this symposium examines the everyday ethics of chemical-entangled beings based on examples from East Africa and Japan. Through this endeavor, it offers the unique opportunity to reexamine the Anthropocene from a more concrete and especially microscopic level.
Date: 4th Feb, 2024 (Sun), 2 pm to 6 pm
Venue: Collaboration Room1 4th floor on Building 18 in Komaba Campus, University of Tokyo（HYBRID Onsite＋Online）
Chair: Maki Kitagawa (University of Tokyo)
14:00 – 14:15 Introduction: Akinori Hamada (University of Tokyo)
14:15 – 15:00 Paper 1 : Wenzel Geissler / Ruth Prince (University of Oslo) “Tracing the metabolites of history: studying the toxic aftermath of the1950s Pare-Taveta malaria eradication experiment”
15:00 – 15:45 Paper 2 : Mayumi Fukunaga (University of Tokyo) “Terra-reforming for socio-ecological salvation: Ways of governing aquatic nutrients for healing a stranger sea”
15:45 – 16:15 Break
16:15 – 17:00 Paper 3 : Ruth Prince (University of Oslo) “Toxic exposures and urban living: notes from Kisumu, Kenya”
17:00 – 17:20 Comment: Gergely Mohacsi (Osaka University)
17:20 – 18:00 Discussion
18:00 – Social Gathering
metabologies 