Unsoiled: The Promise of Future Foods

‘Unsoiled: The Promise of Future Foods’, part of ASCA Political Ecologies Seminar
Public Talk & Masterclass with Dr. Rhys Williams 
Hosted by Jeff Diamanti and Joost de Bloois 
Friday, March 26th 

Public Lecture by Dr. Rhys Williams

Friday, March 26th (16:00-18:00)
Join Zoom Meeting https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/86417049941
Meeting ID: 864 1704 9941

Abstract: Radical developments in the food production technologies of precision fermentation and cultured meats promise to do away with the industrial agricultural system and its attendant pollution, land-use, and animal cruelty. This talk will consider these technologies and the persuasive narratives and aesthetics they mobilise, place them in the context of historical techno-utopian ecological narratives, and ask what new formal relations between human and non-human nature they might bring into being.

Rhys Williams is Lecturer in Energy and Environmental Humanities at the University of Glasgow. His recent publications include ‘Turning toward the Sun: The Solarity and Singularity of New Food’ in South Atlantic Quarterly (2021) and ‘This Shining Confluence of Magic and Technology: Solarpunk, Energy Imaginaries, and the Infrastructures of Solarity’ in Open Library of Humanities (2019).

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Graduate Masterclass

Friday, March 26th (10:00-11:00)
In this one hour masterclass, Rhys will speak from put his recent article on Solarity and agriculture in conversation with ideas of liberation through containment, the narrative of the Singularity, and the new relation between human and non-human these forms promise to concretise. Three articles attached for preparation.

To participate in the masterclass, contact ASCA Political Ecologies organizers Jeff Diamanti (j.diamanti@uva.nl) or Joost de Bloois (J.G.C.deBloois@uva.nl).