IIPC Debate 122
Guest lecture by Svitlana Matviyenko, Simon Fraser University
“Enviromentalized War and Nuclear Terror”
15.5.24, 12-14 Arcanum A112 and online
This talk will discuss the connection between the imperial legacies embedded in the Soviet Union’s military-industrial complex and the resourcification of water and land that are currently exploited for weaponizing energy infrastructure during the Russian War in Ukraine. The talk will begin by discussing the destruction, on June 6, 2023, of the Kakhovka dam, a seminal event during the ongoing war, the aftermath of which made it “worst ecological disaster since the Chornobyl nuclear meltdown.” This event has been also recognized as indicative of genocidal intent and described as ecocide by environmentalists worldwide, which may – hopefully – lead to a long-overdue recognition of ecocide as a 5th war crime against peace in the Rome Statute by the ICC. Because the Kakhovka dam is part of the nuclear energy infrastructure, with its reservoir supplying water to cool the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s reactors, its destruction also occupies an important place in my research on nuclear terrorism during the current war conducted both at the levels of ideas or information and material environment.
Svitlana Matviyenko is an Associate Professor of Critical Media Analysis in the School of Communication and Associate Director of the Digital Democracies Institute at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her research and teaching, informed by science & technology studies and history of science, are focused on information and cyberwar, media and environment, critical infrastructure studies and postcolonial theory. Matviyenko’s current work on nuclear cultures & heritage investigates the practices of nuclear terror, weaponization of pollution and technogenic catastrophes during the Russian war in Ukraine. (https://www.sfu.ca/communication/people/faculty/svitlana-matviyenko.html)
The lecture can be followed on Zoom here:
https://utu.zoom.us/j/65869060553
Meeting ID: 658 6906 0553
The lecture is organised by the research consortium IDA – Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Research Council of Finland.
IIPC 