Dear colleagues and friends, dear students,

I hope this message finds you in good health and spirit!

I also hope that you, just like we do, hold our getting together in Sousse of last November in good memory, and look forward to continue our conversation in the second half of this year when we are back in Tunisia (from April onwards).

This is just a reminder of an email that you might have seen, about the forthcoming seminar (that we inaugurated in Sousse). This time hybrid (https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/83333263586) with our colleague Pierre du Plessis on coming Monday (24 February at 3pm).

I just wanted to express that we would be so happy and honored to see many of you there. And do spread the words among colleagues students and staff.

Warm regards,

On behalf of the Vital Elements Team,

Aouatef.

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We are pleased to invite you to the second edition of the (hybrid) Vital Elements Seminar Series. This time with Pierre du Plessis.

In his talk “From Shadow Ecologies to Infrastructural Cascades: The emergence of a beef reserve and its ecological effects”, Pierre explores the social-historical emergence of Botswana as a beef reserve that feeds Europe and the resultant ecological effects that continue to ripple across Kalahari Desert landscapes.

Though Pierre will be speaking in Amsterdam, the event will also be in hybrid format (https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/83333263586).

All welcome both ways.

For more details see attached flyer.

About the series:

The Vital Elements Seminar Serie, is part of the ERC project Vital Elements, Postcolonial Moves. The project aims at understanding migrant death in relation to, and in the context of, sources of life that we call vital elements. These are materialities that are crucial for life or spur on death in their absence, think of water, phosphate, salt, oil, seeds, fish or sea sponges. The project focuses mainly on the south of Tunisia and explores how these essential resources are connected to major global challenges - not only migration, but also pollution, environmental crises, climate change and colonial relations. It brings together researchers from around the world to discuss these critical issues. The seminar is a space for experimenting and conversing about these complex questions across worlds. Crucially, given the nature of these issues the seminar attends to how we know; it attends to our methods of research. We thus hope to open up conversations about methodology and epistemology in relation to the issues we study. The Vital Elements Seminar Series is a moving seminar, travelling between the universities of Sousse, Gabès, Sfax, Gafsa and Amsterdam. While sessions are mainly in English, questions can be asked in French or Arabic.

Kind regards,

The Vital Elements Team

Prof. Dr. Amade Aouatef M’charek | Anthropology of Science | PI RaceFaceID project (ERC Consolidator grant) | PI Pressing Matter - Ownership, Value and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums (NWA Project) | PI Vital Elements project (ERC Advance Grant) | Department of Anthropology | University of Amsterdam | Nieuwe Achtergracht 166 |room C5.17 | 1018WV Amsterdam | the Netherlands http://www.uva.nl/profile/a.a.mcharek |https://uva.academia.edu/AmadeMcharek |http://race-face-id.euhttp://race-face-id.eu/