Toxicity in the Amazon: Process and Challenges of Bridging Ethnography and Graphic Art in Science Communication

Dr. Amelia Fiske and Jonas Fischer will present "Toxic Inheritance: A Graphic Essay", a graphic novel based on ethnographic research conducted by Fiske between 2011-2013. Toxic invites readers on a toxic tour through the Ecuadorian Amazon, where they encounter contamination in waste pits, soils, and rivers, and listen to the stories of people living alongside the industry. Along the way, readers are immersed in the materiality of toxic contamination and struggles for environmental justice in everyday life. Drawing on anthropological and feminist social science approaches to toxicity, the book renders the experiential components of the toxic tour visually. Toxic seeks to convey the urgency of living in a place and a historical moment where preventing permeation by the continual onslaught of industrial toxicants is neither possible nor expected. At the same time, those most burdened by oil’s weight are continually required to prove that harm has occurred. The visual depiction of these events allows for the subtlety of the various, insidious, even contradictory ways that oil permeates life to emerge in all their difficulty. Toxic is a vivid reflection on the role of toxicants in our everyday lives, ultimately
asking readers to reflect on how we are each implicated in the petrochemical complicities of production, consumption, and exposure both in the Amazon and at home. Dr. Fiske and Mr. Fischer will speak of the process
of creating the book, as well as the challenges of bridging ethnography and graphic art in science communication work.

Dr. Fiske is a cultural anthropologist working at the intersection of medical anthropology, science studies, and environmental humanities. She holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a
research fellow in the Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine at the Technical University of Munich.

Jonas Fischer is a graphic designer, illustrator and comic artist from Kiel, Germany. He collaborates with friends, classmates, peers and designers and scientists from a variety of disciplines. His work has lead him to adventures in Moldova and Ecuador as well as in Otterndorf, Brunsbüttel and Schleswig, Germany.

This is an online event carried out in English. However, questions in German are also welcomed. We look forward to your participation in our lively after-talk discussion! Please register in advance:
https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqde6ppzwrHdJKm1bW0XymP6-GdHZgbcse

More information on each colloquium will be sent to our mail list as the dates approach. Here subscribe to our email list:
https://www.mscl.de/mailing-list/ .

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas
about possible topics and speakers.