Marco Armiero — Guerrilla Narrative in the Wasteocene

The concept of the geological Anthropocene may have diminished in prominence, yet it remains vital to scrutinize the narratives it has generated and to foster counter-hegemonic storytelling. Although humanity collectively inhabits the Anthropocene, its effects are far from uniformly distributed. Instead of seeking its evidence solely in the geosphere, what if researchers shifted their focus to the organosphere — exploring the intertwined ecologies of humans and their environments?

Toxic layers have not only settled into physical landscapes but have also infiltrated human and more-than-human bodies. Recent epigenetic studies suggest that these toxic imprints are now embedded in genetic memory. By investigating this embodied stratigraphy of power and toxicity, we confront not the Anthropocene but the Wasteocene—an era defined by waste. However, the Wasteocene extends beyond the mere generation of waste; it is fundamentally about the systematic production of wasted lives and degraded places. The enforcement of wasting relationships upon marginalized human and more-than-human communities constructs a toxic ecology made of contaminants and narratives.

This talk will examine the "Toxic Narrative Infrastructure" — a framework which invisibilizes, normalizes, and naturalizes injustices — and explore how guerrilla narratives seek to disrupt and dismantle it.

About the speaker

Marco Armiero is an ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for the History of Science, Autonomous University of Barcelona & Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies. A global leader in environmental humanities, he has held postdoctoral and visiting positions at Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, and Coimvra, and directed the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory, establishing it as a hub for socioecological research and activism.

His groundbreaking book, Wasteocene: Stories from the Global Dump (Cambridge University Press, 2021), has been widely recognized, translated into several languages, and inspired both academic symposia and media coverage. In 2022, he co-authored the first environmental history of Italian fascism, published by Einaudi, translated by MIT Press, and forthcoming in Spanish.

A pioneer in his field, Prof. Armiero is a founding figure in European environmental history and has advanced research on migration, socioecological crises, and justice. His influential concepts, such as the "Wasteocene" and "toxic narrative infrastructure," have shaped contemporary scholarship, blending academic excellence with advocacy for environmental and social equity.