Stockholm university
Department of Social Anthropology

Ecography seminar with Sebastian Lundsteen Nielsen: "As if the catastrophe was not already here:.."

Seminar

Date: Wednesday 22 October 2025

Time: 13.00 – 14.30

Location: B604

Ecography seminar with Sebastian Lundsteen Nielsen: "As if the catastrophe was not already here: Visual and sonic dispatches from a chemically polluted landscape in Denmark"

Abstract: 

As if the catastrophe was not already here: Visual and sonic dispatches from a chemically polluted landscape in Denmark 
This presentation reflects on the experimental outputs based on my PhD titled "Submergence: Environmental Justice and the Specter of Chemical Pollution." The thesis explored what it means to live in the ongoing aftermath of a chemical catastrophe on the Danish west coast. Since the 1950s, the pesticide-producing company Cheminova, owned by Aarhus University until 2014, has been responsible for numerous pollution scandals, including three underground sites filled with highly toxic chemical waste that, combined, make up the largest, most extensive, and contaminated sites in Denmark. The company and the sites still exist today, leaving the local community and more-than-human inhabitants with chemical exposure, only waiting to re-surface in different ways. 

While the thesis was shaped in a more academic format, continuous work has made space for collaborations with sound (Korana Jelaca) and visual (Asbjørn Skou) artists. The presentation draws from sound/text publications and examples from the current "Høfde 42" - project that transform the thesis into a ~300-page graphic novel. By using these examples, the presentation reflects on the role of multimodal strategies, collaboration, ecographies, and the attempts to re-sensitize our experiences of living on a permanently polluted planet.

Bio:

Sebastian Lundsteen Nielsen earned his PhD in Environmental Humanities from University of Stavanger. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Copenhagen. One of several red threads in his research is to understand why "we" bury things and think they are gone or remain hidden. This has led him to study chemical depots, carbon capture and storage, as well as mining closures in the Nordic Region and Kalaallit Nunaat. 

Biordinary

 

Last updated: September 29, 2025

Source: Department of Social Anthropology

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