BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.6.1//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news5308@zasb.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260909T164828 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260930T161500 SUMMARY:Laurian Bowles: "The Weight of Waiting: Aluminum Pans\, Contemporar y Coloniality and Porter Labor in Ghana" DESCRIPTION:This presentation examines aluminum pans as a prosthetic of inf rastructure and intimacy in Ghana’s market landscapes. Drawing on resear ch from her recently published book\, “Headstrong: Women Porters\, Blac kness\, and Modernity in Accra”\, Bowles explains how porter work is gov erned by feminized regimes of obligation\, patience\, and care. Centering the everyday use of aluminum pans and the scientific history of aluminum\, this lecture traces how an ordinary object can mediate power relationship s between traders and the state\, facilitate modes of protection and mutua lity among workers\, and re-enact colonial legacies of racial capitalism a nd uneven accumulation. Bowles also explores how intimacy functions as eth nographic method that reveals how porter work is a prototype of the global gig economy that animates the racial logics of coloniality and the improv isational strategies of precarious workers.\\r\\nLaurian Bowles is Associa te Professor of Anthropology at the Davidson College. She is a cultural an d visual anthropologist who researches\, writes and teaches about social m obility and the visual economies of women’s labor in Ghana and the Afric an Diaspora. X-ALT-DESC:

This presentation examines aluminum pans as a prosthetic of infrastr ucture and intimacy in Ghana’s market landscapes. Drawing on research fr om her recently published book\, \;“Headstrong: Women Porters \, Blackness\, and Modernity in Accra”\, Bowles explains how porter work is governed by feminized regimes of obligation\, patience\, and care. Cen tering the everyday use of aluminum pans and the scientific history of alu minum\, this lecture traces how an ordinary object can mediate power relat ionships between traders and the state\, facilitate modes of protection an d mutuality among workers\, and re-enact colonial legacies of racial capit alism and uneven accumulation. Bowles also explores how intimacy functions as ethnographic method that reveals how porter work is a prototype of the global gig economy that animates the racial logics of coloniality and the improvisational strategies of precarious workers.

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Laurian Bowles is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Davidson College. She is a c ultural and visual anthropologist who researches\, writes and teaches abou t social mobility and the visual economies of women’s labor in Ghana and the African Diaspora.

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260930T180000 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR