Grand Challenge Lecture Series - Plastisphere: The interdisciplinary challenge to transform the social life of plastic
02 November 2016 6.30 - 7.30pm Keele Hall - The Salvin Room
Plastic raises material, global and social questions. It’s not just ‘stuff’ but substances inscribed with cultural meanings. In this Grand Challenges lecture, Dr Deirdre McKay will explore how our interactions with these materials shape the ways we feel and think about ourselves in the ‘plastisphere’ we now inhabit.
We tend to consider plastics to be cheap and disposable, almost already the garbage they will likely become. Thus our challenge is to think of plastics differently – as potentially valuable stuff. We need not only new and better materials, improved recycling systems, and demand for recycled goods, but to consider the social life of plastics in terms of the broader meanings attached to the materials.
Dr Deirdre McKay is Senior Lecturer in Social Geography and Environmental Politics at Keele University. You can also have a look on YouTube at a previous talk that Deirdre gave on the digital lives of artefacts in disapora.
This lecture is free and all are welcome to attend.
Refreshments will be available in the Great Hall, adjacent to the Salvin Room from 5.30pm onwards.
For more information and to book, please visit the Insitute of Liberal Arts and Sciences events page.