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Michael Ezban talks trash at the University of Sussex

Michael Ezban (MLA1 AP ’13) has been invited to deliver his paper, “The Trash Heap of History,” at the TRASH Conference in the UK on September 14. The conference aims to expose garbage as “a physical and symbolic manifestation of consumer society and its associated debris” and to “celebrate the filthy, excessive and grotesque.”
Michael’s peer-reviewed paper examines the extant ancient Roman landfill Monte Testaccio as a model for contemporary landfill reclamation practices. It was published in Places journal earlier this year. In conjunction with the conference, an exhibit of Michael’s notational drawings will show the processes of material migration and civic aggregation at the ancient landfill.
The TRASH Conference is organized by the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex.