A talk by Prof. Phaedra C. Pezzullo, April 17, 2024 3:15-4:45pm ECCR 1B40 (Directions below)
About her book…
“Pezzullo has produced a revelatory and revolutionary meditation on one of the most significant power struggles of our time. Beyond Straw Men features a caring and deep appreciation for the complexities, flaws, and the beauty of the ‘impure politics’ surrounding plastic pollution, while centering the perspectives and experiences of Global South communities, environmental justice and disability justice advocates, and our more-than-human relatives. Her sources of evidence are solid, her arguments are persuasive, and her writing is at once engaging, serious, humorous, and uplifting. A delightful book to sit with and be inspired by in these challenging times!
-David N. Pellow,
author of What is Critical Environmental Justice?
This talk
draws on Pezzullo’s latest book, Beyond Straw Men. Inspired by on- and offline organizing in the Global South and the Global South of the North, the book engages public controversies and policies through analysis of hashtag activism, campaign materials, and her own podcast interviews with headline-making advocates in Bangladesh, Kenya, the United States, and Vietnam. Pezzullo’s talk will illustrate how plastics have become an articulator of an environmental justice crisis and an entry point into the contested environmental politics of today, focusing on how plastic waste has proliferated through greenwashing by what she calls the plastics-industrial complex. We will discuss pollution colonialism, waste imperialism, and related climate injustices. In conclusion, she will discuss campus negotiations about single-use plastics in our campus vending machines, as well as four trends globally of anti-plastic pollution advocacy that have started to turn the tide.
“Cultures of care, I believe, must reckon with ecological thresholds by abandoning purity and making critical judgments about how much is too much or too little, and for whom.” — Pezzullo, Beyond Straw Men
Directions
- Stairs option: From outside the west entrance to the ECCR (Engineering Center) building, enter the building through the doors to your right (with “ECCR” in large letters on the glass to the right of the door). Then go down the stairs that are in front of you. At the bottom of the stairs, the classroom is immediately to your left.
- Elevator option: From outside the west entrance to the ECCR (Engineering Center) building, enter the building through the doors in front of you (with “ENGINEERING CENTER WEST ENTRANCE MAIN LOBBY” to the right of the doors). The elevators will be just to your left; I recommend you ask the Information desk staff for detailed directions on how to reach 1B40 from there.
phaedracpezzullo.com 