In this public presentation, Dr. Stuart Kirsch will present findings from his field-based research on current decarbonization models for the concrete industry. His research involves collaborations with materials scientists, engineers, and industrial designers to integrate social science perspectives and together imagine more sustainable futures.
Speaker: Stuart Kirsch, Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Bio: Dr. Kirsch is a leading scholar of globalization and development whose work focuses especially on concerns about the environment and sustainability. He has worked in the Pacific and the Amazon on indigenous rights, including long-term research and advocacy with the people living downstream from the Ok Tedi copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea. His scholarly interests include climate change, corporations, design ethnography, engaged anthropology, political ecology, and social movements. Much of his work has been undertaken in collaboration with interlocutors located beyond the academy, including indigenous activists, lawyers, and engineers. He is the author of Reverse Anthropology: Indigenous Analysis of Social and Environmental Relations in New Guinea; Mining Capitalism: The Relationship between Corporations and their Critics; and Engaged Anthropology: Politics beyond the Text.