Conversation with researcher, writer and editor Nehal El-Hadi

This event is organized by the Centre for Material Cultures and Materialities (CMCM), in collaboration with the Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures (BRIHC). 

Speaker: Nehal El-Hadi

(Hybrid event - online and Arts 250)

In conversation with our colleague Dr Nathan Cardon, Nehal El-Hadi will discuss her current project on sand. The project is one of radical interdisciplinarity shaped by Black cultural studies and Black geographies and draws on Nehal’s professional training and experience in environmental and cultural journalism. It develops a Black feminist materialist framework to investigate human-material relationships with sand. 

Sand is a granular material within a specific size range of particles, comprising broken down rock and organic substances. Sand is also the material most inextricably tied into human civilization and progress; it is the material that builds our worlds, literally and metaphorically. It is also, the second most contentious environmental resource in the world, after water—we are running out of easily extractable sand and at the same time, causing irreversible environmental destruction through extractive practices. Sand, as a material, allows us to grasp the intricate connections between the various challenges we face related to the environment, migration, labour, climate change, and conflict.