Waste, Infrastructure, and the Afterlife of Media

Studies of waste in the social sciences have tended to focus on the symbolic level, considering waste a mere social construct. This seminar, by contrast, takes a material approach to waste analysis. It brings together literature from the fields of history of science, science and technology studies (STS), media studies, and discard studies to think about how the material properties of waste shape our understanding and management of waste and the infrastructures that allow or prohibit waste’s movement and discard. The discussion will center on the waste of the body and at the end of media, and on the emotional and sensory registers that emerge in relation to such materials. By so doing, the seminar addresses larger questions about the connection between the social and material orders, and about the potential for finding value and meaning in waste.