Conversations with...Extractivism

Conversations with...Extractivism is a hybrid symposium collectively led by Dr Nicholas Mangan, Charity Edwards and Dr Eduardo Kairuz from Monash University’s Faculty of Art Design & Architecture (MADA), as part of the planetary Shared Campus: Critical Ecologies group. It will be hosted in-person at Monash University’s Caulfield Campus and simultaneously online with our international partners in Zurich, Athens, Taipei, London and elsewhere.

The symposium will bring together an ensemble of researchers who explore the notion of ‘extractivism’ across different fields and through a myriad of forms, including (though not limited to):

• Supply chains at the scale of the local and global
• Extractive practices operating at micro and macro levels
• Enterprises that encompass the terrestrial and off-world
• Mining tangible natural resources such as rare earth minerals
• Examining the role of ‘sustainable futures’
• Interrogating scars that cut through the Earth and its inhabitants.

Crucial to considering ‘extractivism’ through these structures is an accountability for Indigenous struggles and propositions for degrowth, resistance, and emancipation.

Keynote speakers:

Dr Alonso Barros is a lawyer (PUCCh) and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Combining two decades of experience in advocacy and anthropology, his work involves projects affecting indigenous peoples' territories in Latin America. Since 2013, he has worked as a researcher and litigation lawyer, mediator and arbiter on behalf of Indigenous peoples and communities involved with the extractive industry in the Atacama Desert. Currently, Alonso is a Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art (London).

Dr Susan Schuppli is an UK-based artist and researcher whose work examines material evidence ranging from war and conflict to environmental disasters and climate change. She is a Reader and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London; and an affiliate artist-researcher and Board Chair of Forensic Architecture.

Other speakers

• Alejandro Haiek, Umeå University, Sweden
• Alexis Destoop, Monash University
• Andrea Urushima, Kyoto Seika University, Japan
• Amelia Hine, University of Wollongong
• Ana Lara Heyns, Monash University
• Georgia Nowak, Monash University
• Global Extraction Observatory (GEO), University of Newcastle and Monash University
• Jahkarli Romanis, Monash University
• Joëlle Bitton, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
• Kate Fitch, Monash University
• Kate Hill, Monash University
• Köken Ergun
• Terri Bird, Bianca Hester, Scott Mitchell, Open Spatial Workshop, Monash University, RMIT and UNSW
• Penelope Cain
• Sara Daly, Monash University

Full program to be announced shortly. Light refreshments will be provided at the on campus event.

About Critical Ecologies: Critical Ecologies is a group of creative practitioners from the Shared Campus network, who tackle the ecological emergency with artistic and political actions, aiming to find adequate tools and manoeuvres. Combining multiple voices, Critical Ecologies promotes cultural exchanges and strengthens the bonds between art, sustainability and agency.

This event will take place on the unceded lands of the people of the Kulin nations. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and acknowledge Aboriginal connection to material and creative practice on these lands for more than 60,000 years.

You must not come to campus if you're unwell or a household contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.