PERC is a node of POLLEN
Political Ecology Research Centre (PERC) has recently concluded The Lives and Afterlives of Plastics conference. The conference (watch here) featured a diverse range of twenty minute presentations covering a wide range of disciplines. Conferences held in Aotearoa/New Zealand tend to be dominated by Australasian voices because of our geographical distance from other parts of the world, so it was a real pleasure for us at PERC to be part of an event with so many voices from around the globe. The conference reached 3,500 people, drawing comments from a much broader pool than just academia, such as artists in London and New York, and sustainable business owners in New Zealand. We hope that this conference has catalysed new and novel research relationships and we look forward to sharing the same virtual space again sometime in the near future. Upcoming conferences in 2018 and 2019 will centre around the themes of ‘Feral Natures’; ‘Resource Extraction’ and ‘Tertiary Institutes as Critic and Conscience’. POLLEN members should look out for the call for papers at the end of the year/beginning of 2018.
Upcoming for PERC in the immediate future is a seminar by Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, Jennifer Silver. Jennifer will be discussing her research on international oceans governance and the ‘blue economy.’ You can watch the speech live, or later, here.
Recent publications from PERC members include:
Farrelly, T. A., & Shaw, I. C. (2017). Polystyrene as Hazardous Household Waste. In Household Hazardous Waste Management. InTech. Open Access here.
Taffel, S. (2016). Technofossils of the Anthropocene Media, Geology, and Plastics. Cultural Politics, 12(3), 355-375.
Holm, N. and Taffel, S (Eds.) (2017). Ecological Entanglements in the Anthropocene. Lexington Books: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498535694/Ecological-Entanglements-in-the-Anthropocene
Finally, any scholars interested in visiting PERC at Massey University in New Zealand contact us as soon as possible to discuss opportunities with the International Visitor Research Fund (IVRF) in 2017 which will open on 2 October:
The IVRF has been established to promote high quality research outputs through international collaboration and co-publication. IVRF does this by supporting the international travel costs of reputable researchers to come to Massey University for at least a month (in exceptional circumstances shorter periods may be considered). The visiting researcher is expected to work with staff at Massey University on research activities with high quality outputs. It is intended this collaboration will enhance Massey University’s international research reputation and profile, and encourage staff to apply for larger New Zealand and international research grants.
· The AVC and the University Research Committee manages the IVRF awards programme.
· The maximum allocation will be $5,000 to assist in covering the travel costs of up to a return around the world economy air ticket, plus a contribution towards expenses.
· Applications for the 1 November 2017 IVRF round can be made via the SREF_IVRF online portal.
· The portal opens for applications on 2 October 2017.
· Applications close at 5 pm, 1 November 2017.
Information on eligibility, criteria and guidelines as well as templates for completing the application process, are available here).