Screening and discussion of documentary film, The Waste Commons.
Rosalind Fredericks's research and teaching interests are centered on development, urbanism, and political ecology in Africa. As an urban geographer, her research brings together discard studies, critical infrastructure studies, and feminist political ecology in examining the politics of waste work and discard infrastructures in Dakar, Senegal. Her book, Garbage Citizenship: Vital Infrastructures of Labor in Dakar, Senegal (Duke University Press, 2018), was awarded the Toyin Falola Book Award for the best book in African Studies by the Association of Global South Studies. Her current research project, supported by a major grant from the National Science Foundation, examines the lifeworlds that hang in the balance with the transformation of Dakar's dump, Mbeubeuss. Fredericks is also a film producer and director and she recently completed a full-length documentary film, The Waste Commons, in collaboration with Alchemy Films about the politics of waste picking in Dakar.