REMINDER: Subject: LSSH Space Seminars ONLINE Thurs 11th June with Dr Chakad Ojani 12.00-13.00CET

[Graham Minenor-Matheson]

Hi space fans!

For our last LSSH lunch lecture of this Spring Term, we are very excited to present Chakad Ojani of Stockholm University and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study who will talk to us ONLINE on Thursday 11th June @12.00-13.00CET about "Infrastructuring Space/Un-Earthing Ground: Toward an Anthropology of Cosmic Relations".  We are very much looking forward to this one!  Abstract and Zoom link below:


Title: Infrastructuring Space/Un-Earthing Ground: Toward an Anthropology of Cosmic Relations

Abstract: Sweden is currently transforming its sounding rocket range, Esrange, into an orbital launch site for small satellites. This development responds to broader shifts in the global space sector, often described as “space commercialization” and the “new space economy.” Drawing on ethnographic research in Kiruna and other Swedish cities, this talk examines how the development of orbital launch capability is mediated by infrastructures of resource extraction and their associated forms of marginalization. I describe this analytical focus as emphasizing space’s “groundedness,” highlighting how sociopolitical dynamics on Earth remain inseparable from human activity in space. At the same time, by discussing contemporary concerns such as space weather and orbital debris, I argue that emergent extraplanetary relations also require attention to influence running in the opposite direction: from space to Earth. This perspective situates space within terrestrial processes but is primarily concerned with how these processes are being “un-Earthed.” Against this backdrop, I suggest that intensifying infrastructural engagements with space call for a reconsideration of geocentric perspectives on environmental relations and the social study of outer space.

Bio: 
Chakad Ojani is a Docent and Pro Futura Scientia Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Stockholm University and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study whose research primarily focuses on the anthropology of infrastructures, environmental anthropology and science and technology studies.

The Linköping Space Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (LSSH) Lunch Seminars are all held online via Zoom.  
Zoom link for this seminar 

https://liu-se.zoom.us/j/66799406079?pwd=5EFMbDhd3mUcQEn2oWKgVaaPugJPAk.1  

If you have any questions, contact Graham Minenor-Matheson on graham.mine...@liu.se or Michael Godhe on michae...@liu.se 

Look forward to seeing you there!

Best,
Graham and Michael 
LSSH