Ecotheories Colloquium: “Black Soil”
Kimberly Bain, assistant professor of English language and literatures at the University of British Columbia, will present “Black Soil” — this event is free and open to Princeton University faculty, staff and students.
This talk turns to Black soil to map a provisional theory of Black alchemy. Black alchemy names an erotic and ethical orientation toward the Dead and dead matter. Sifting the metonymic, metaphysical, and material properties between (Black fleshly) matter and (earthly) matters, I argue for an attention to the erotic relations between Blackness, soil, and Dead (matter). These relations disrupt and refuse the circuits of racial capitalism that establish both Black bodies and soil as a site of resource depletion and commodification. Turning to the syncretic knowledge system of Obeah and tinctures of grave dirt; Cachexia Africana and the histories of dirt eating; and the 2019 performance and installation Dirt Eater by Kiyan Williams, I ask: what are the practices of those who’ve collectively lived the end of the world and therefore are already dreaming the messy, dirty end of this one?
Bain presented “On Black Breath” as part of the fall 2021 Environmental Humanities and Social Transformation Colloquium sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI).
The Ecotheories Colloquium will focus on ecotheories and ecopoetics — the work of scholars for whom ecology becomes a foundation for theories of literature, and for whom literature becomes a foundation for theories of ecology. Ecotheories is the 2022-23 installment of the Contemporary Poetry Colloquium based in the Princeton Department of English and is cosponsored by HMEI, the Environmental Humanities and Social Transformation Colloquium, the Blue Lab, the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Fund, the Effron Center for the Study of America, the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities, and the University Center for Human Values.
Additional dates and speakers in this series are below.
NOVEMBER 3
Cary Wolfe, the Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English, Rice University
NOVEMBER 14
Ada Smailbegović, Assistant Professor of English, Brown University
MARCH 27
Anna Tsing, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
- This event has passed.
Ecotheories Colloquium: “Black Soil”
Wed, Feb 15, 2023 ・ 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Online via Zoom
Kimberly Bain, assistant professor of English language and literatures at the University of British Columbia, will present “Black Soil” — this event is free and open to Princeton University faculty, staff and students.
This talk turns to Black soil to map a provisional theory of Black alchemy. Black alchemy names an erotic and ethical orientation toward the Dead and dead matter. Sifting the metonymic, metaphysical, and material properties between (Black fleshly) matter and (earthly) matters, I argue for an attention to the erotic relations between Blackness, soil, and Dead (matter). These relations disrupt and refuse the circuits of racial capitalism that establish both Black bodies and soil as a site of resource depletion and commodification. Turning to the syncretic knowledge system of Obeah and tinctures of grave dirt; Cachexia Africana and the histories of dirt eating; and the 2019 performance and installation Dirt Eater by Kiyan Williams, I ask: what are the practices of those who’ve collectively lived the end of the world and therefore are already dreaming the messy, dirty end of this one?
Bain presented “On Black Breath” as part of the fall 2021 Environmental Humanities and Social Transformation Colloquium sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI).
The Ecotheories Colloquium will focus on ecotheories and ecopoetics — the work of scholars for whom ecology becomes a foundation for theories of literature, and for whom literature becomes a foundation for theories of ecology. Ecotheories is the 2022-23 installment of the Contemporary Poetry Colloquium based in the Princeton Department of English and is cosponsored by HMEI, the Environmental Humanities and Social Transformation Colloquium, the Blue Lab, the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Fund, the Effron Center for the Study of America, the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities, and the University Center for Human Values.
Additional dates and speakers in this series are below.
NOVEMBER 3
Cary Wolfe, the Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English, Rice University
NOVEMBER 14
Ada Smailbegović, Assistant Professor of English, Brown University
MARCH 27
Anna Tsing, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
