Sociology and Anthropology Seminar Series: Dr Hedda Askland
Dr Hedda Askland
The School of Humanities and Social Science Sociology and Anthropology Seminar Series presents it's first reading of 2017, by Dr Hedda Askland. Dr Askland will present her paper, "Mining temporalities and the rhythms of extraction: nostalgic, solastalgic and eritalgic longing."
Abstract
Wollar is a small village located on the edge of the Great Dividing Range in the Mid-Western Region of New South Wales. Beneath grand sandstone cliffs and surrounded by agricultural land, the historic village once presented an image of tranquillity and peace. Today, the past serenity has been replaced by the aura of a ghost town and an unfolding battle for survival is taking place. The village, which is surrounded by three large open-cut coalmines, has been deemed to be unviable in two recent social impact reports. The proximity to the mines and the competition for land have led to a rapid depopulation of the township, and those who remain in the area have become increasingly isolated and exposed to increased environmental and social risks. The village is currently facing threat of further mine expansion, with the boundaries the mine closest to the village to be moved to only 1.5km from the village centre. The extension proposal has been described as the ‘community’s death sentence’.
Through reflection on ethnographic material from Wollar, this paper explores the emergence of displacement as an experiential condition of loss in which temporalities of the past, present and the future are intricately interwoven. I argue that to understand the local, social and communal impacts of the mining activity, mining must be approached not just as a transformation of space but, indeed, a transformation of place, in which the interconnections between the biophysical, social and spiritual are negotiated through distinct temporalities. I adopt the triad nostalgia, solastalgia and eritalgia to enable the exploration of place-based distress in response to the past, present and future.
Hedda is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology in the School of Humanities and Social Science. She has previously worked as a Research Fellow at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, where she was employed in a research capacity since completing her PhD in July 2009. She holds a Candidata Magisterii (Can.Mag.) degree from the University of Bergen, Norway, majoring in social anthropology, and a Masters of Social Science and a PhD (Sociology/Anthropology) from the University of Newcastle.
This presentation will draw on the paper ‘A dying village: mining and the experiential condition of displacement’, presented at the 14th European Association Social Anthropologist Biennial Conference: Anthropological Legacies and Human Futures’, University of Milano-Biocca, 20-23 July 2016.
This is a free event and all a welcome.
For further details contact Akane Kanai.
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