Lunch seminar | Carbon landscapes: Life and leftovers in the margins of capitalism | Rodrigo C. Bulamah

Carbon landscapes: Life and leftovers in the margins of capitalism

Wood charcoal and firewood represent the basis of the Haitian energy system. It is estimated that 70% of the energy demand in the country is supplied by this fuel, Charcoal production, however, is portrayed by elite national groups and global humanitarian agencies as irrational and responsible for a supposedly uncontrolled deforestation in the country. However, the charcoal chain is mediated by techniques and affects that involve vital processes, different regimes of property and inheritance, economic and ecological calculations in addition to the agency of spirits that inhabit trees and other elements of the landscape. Focusing on the leftovers of charcoal economy and its connections to local concepts of life and death, I wish to discuss how hope is locally cultivated and how new agrarian futures are envisioned.

Speaker

Rodrigo C. Bulamah is a social anthropology and a São Paulo Foundation (FAPESP) postdoctoral fellow at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). Working on the interface between history and anthropology, his current research explores the technopolitical and affective life of wood charcoal in Haiti and its connections to regenerative ecological practices. He is also interested in discussions about ruins, new plantation studies, human-animal relations, as well as slavery and revolution. In 2023, he will join the Department of Anthropology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) as Associate Professor of Anthropological Theory.

Moderator

Rosemarijn Hoefte is a historian specialized in the Caribbean and senior researcher at KITLV. She is also a Professor in the history of Suriname after 1873 in comparative perspective at the University of Amsterdam.

Format

This webinar is a hybrid event and will be held in the conference room of KITLV (room 1.68) and online via Zoom. Date & time: Monday 9 January 2023, 13.00 h – 14.30 h CET. KITLV will offer a small vegetarian lunch!

Registration for participation on location and online

If you want to attend this webinar on location, please register via: [email protected].

If you wish to attend the webinar online, please register here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting via Zoom.

Photo

Haitian landscape by Rodrigo Bulamah.