[csaa-forum] CFP: The Lives and Afterlives of Plastic - A Nearly Carbon Neutral Conference

[Sy Taffel]

*Call for papers*



*The Lives and Afterlives of Plastic: A nearly carbon-neutral conference*



*June 26th – July 14th 2017*



More plastic was produced in the past decade than during the entire 20th
century. We currently produce over 300 million tonnes of plastic each year.
We have built a world in which we are reliant on plastic for our medical
health and everyday functioning, and yet we are also coming to realise that
the global explosion of plastic has revealed a dark side. Currently, only
14% of the hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic we produce annually is
recycled.  As a result, vast amounts of plastic currently accumulate within
oceanic gyres, landfills, and other environments, leading to the dire
prediction that there will be more plastic than fish by weight in the
world’s oceans by 2050.  The production of plastic is a significant driver
of fossil fuel consumption, with approximately 8% of global oil production
dedicated to the production of plastics.  A growing body of research is
revealing how endocrine disrupting chemicals and microplastics in aquatic
ecosystems are impacting fauna and food safety in often unpredictable
ways.  The production, consumption, and accumulation of plastic also raises
ethical questions associated with health, pollution, and inequality.



500 billion single-use plastic bags are consumed annually around the
world.  28,500 tonnes of expanded polystyrene (EPS) was produced in 2014,
90% of which was used to make single-use products.  The bulk of single-use
EPS waste is not recycled. The sheer volume of single-use plastics produced
and consumed globally is emblematic of the planned obsolescence that
characterises linear economies.



The complexities inherent in the ways in which plastic is produced,
consumed, and discarded are never purely material, social, nor stable. As
such, addressing the social and environmental issues surrounding plastic
requires an interdisciplinary focus that crosses the traditional divisions
between the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.  This
nearly-carbon neutral conference aims to encourage presentations that
articulate the value and challenges constitutive of such interdisciplinary
collaborations.



We welcome contributors who hail from a broad range of disciplines
including: marine and freshwater ecologists, artists, engineers,
anthropologists, green chemists, environmental psychologists, designers,
toxicologists, sociologists, endocrinologists, zoologists, geographers,
environmental managers, development practitioners, biologists, economists,
media and communications experts, and environmental activists.



The conference organisers envisage that contributions will cover a
similarly broad range of plastic-related themes including, but not limited
to, the following:


Aquatic ecologies

Policy and legislation

Food packaging and labelling

Zero waste and the circular economy

Green chemistry

Human and non-human health

E-waste plastics

Political ecologies

New materialism

Environmental activism

A new plastic economy

Waste engineering

Cultures of waste

Citizen science

Testing protocols

Micro-organisms



*Nearly carbon-neutral conference format*

Traditional academic conferences are responsible for a considerable amount
of carbon emissions, as presenters fly from around the world to present in
a single location. This also incurs significant financial costs, which
often precludes researchers from developing countries and postgraduate
students from attending. The Environmental Humanities Initiative at UC
Santa Barbara estimated that running an online conference reduces the
carbon footprint of a conference by 99%.



This conference will take place entirely online from 26 June-14 July,
2017.  Contributors will not have to travel anywhere and there is no
registration fee. Conference presentations will consist of material that
can be submitted online as a video file. This could take the form of a
webcam recording, an edited video, a PowerPoint or Prezi with recorded
audio or another form of video.  Each presentation should be no more than
20 minutes long.  Simple, user-friendly instructions on creating and
submitting presentations for the conference will be provided on acceptance
of abstracts.



One of the key aims of this conference is to facilitate interdisciplinary
networking opportunities that will provide further support and context to
attendees’ current and future plastic-related research projects.  One way
of facilitating these networks is by providing presenters and registered
attendees with ample opportunities for Q&A following each panel.  The
Environmental Humanities Initiative white paper showed that presenters and
attendees at their carbon-neutral conference were provided with many more
opportunities to ask questions and receive feedback than most traditional
conferences.



Contributor profiles with research interests, expertise, and contact
details will be made available to registered attendees.  The conference
organisers hope that attendees will identify synergies across profiles and
presentations and will contact individuals to determine the potential for
research collaborations.



*Abstract deadline and details*

If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please send a 250
word abstract with your name, e-mail address, and affiliation to
PERC at massey.ac.nz by 20 February, 2017.


After the conference, some contributors will be invited to develop their
presentations for publication in an edited volume.  Preference for
publication in the edited volume will be given to papers presenting
research collaborations between arts/social science researchers and
fundamental/natural scientists.  We hope some of these research
collaborations will emerge out of the conference.



*Conference Organisers*

Dr Trisia Farrelly & Dr Sy Taffel




Sy Taffel, PhD

Lecturer in Media Studies |Facilitator, Political Ecology Research Centre

College of Humanities and Social Sciences | Massey University

Email: s.a.taffel at massey.ac.nz | Telephone: +64 (06 ) 356 9099 ext. 84527
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