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Simon Paré-Poupart began working as a garbageman to pay for school. After earning graduate degrees, he pursued careers in more “respectable” professions, yet ultimately found himself back on the truck—drawn by the physical intensity of the work, the camaraderie of his rough-and-tumble colleagues, and a sense of honesty and freedom that no other job had provided.
Robin Nagle’s Picking Up is an ethnography of New York City’s Department of Sanitation based on more than a decade of work with the Department, including time serving as a uniformed sanitation worker. In addition to her role with DSNY, Nagle is a Clinical Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies in New York University’s School of Liberal Studies. She describes her scholarship as part of the emerging interdisciplinary field of discard studies. Learn more about Robin at robinnagle.com.
The event promises a lively conversation between two authors who approach waste management from remarkably similar yet distinctly different perspectives. Their discussion will explore not only the realities of sanitation work, but also the broader cultural, social, and human dimensions of the systems that keep our cities functioning every day.
