| Start Date: | 10/9/2014 | Start Time: | 4:00 PM |
| End Date: | 10/9/2014 | End Time: | 5:00 PM |
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Event Description
Mimi Sheller, PhD, director, Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, Drexel University
Using a single material as an entry point for understanding the global interdependence of our energy systems, world metals markets, mining and waste disposal/reuse, this talk is based on Sheller’s new book “Aluminum Dreams: The Making of Light Modernity.” Aluminum enabled the last century’s key global innovations that made the world more interdependent: air power, the Space Age, fast transportation and satellite communications. In the 21st century it promises to bring us new nanomaterials, transparent armor and energy efficient vehicles and buildings. But it also poses a conundrum. Aluminum’s shining dreams have a dark side of global environmental pollution, human rights concerns, and struggles for resource sovereignty and transparency in extractive industries. The story of aluminum ranges from Andrew Mellon, Alcoa and the longest anti-trust lawsuit in US history to the role of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs in the metals market, the fall of Russia’s aluminum giant Rusal, the rise of China and the chaos in Guinea (with the largest bauxite reserves in the world). How do we assemble the material culture of modernity, at what environmental costs, and with what prospects for global interdependence as the world adapts to a changing climate? |
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Location:
Gerri C. LeBow Hall, 3220 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
Audience:
AlumniInternational StudentsCurrent StudentsFacultyProspective StudentsPublicStaffGraduate Students |
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