Stigma Damages: A podcast featuring Dean Mimi Sheller

Dean of The Global School, Mimi Sheller, is the featured guest in a new episode of Stigma Damages, a podcast by Irish artist Michele Horrigan, whose work has centered on narratives of place, dwelling, and environment, with a focus on ecological issues.

The episode is a conversation about the impact of the aluminum industry. Sheller talks about the mobilization of modern life in the twentieth century that resulted from the industry’s advancement; aluminum’s importance in technology, innovation, architecture, and design; as well as societal impacts such as the struggle for sovereignty and resource control in the Caribbean and elsewhere, and environmental and health concerns near sites associated with the global industry. The episode explores how growth in the aluminum industry created discussions about modernity, economic impacts, resource extraction, and pollution.

Sheller also discusses the genesis and trajectory of her research into bauxite(a raw material for aluminum) mining and the aluminum industry, as well as the outlook for new industrial processes to address societal impacts. She is the author of Aluminum Dreams: The Making of Light Modernity, a book on the cultural impacts of the aluminum industry, which was published in 2014.

Listen to the podcast here by clicking on the link to Episode 2: Mimi Sheller.