While Mary Douglas’ oft-quoted maxim states that, “dirt is matter out of place,” it is also the soil in which life takes root. This conference positions landscapes as fertile ground from which to explore the politics of dirt and other matters out of place. Moving away from engagements with landscape as inert background or pristine setting, we consider perspectives on dynamic, dirty landscapes produced by dislocations and emplacements, abandonment and occupation, or human and more-than-human movements.

Matters Out of Place capture the anthropological imagination because they draw attention to the ways social orders are maintained, destabilized and transformed. They are not simply boundary-making sources of cognitive dissonance, as Mary Douglas’ maxim implies, but material presences and absences that lead to unexpected forms of flourishing. This conference puts forth a dirty kind of anthropology, one that works the boundaries of social orders as well as the boundaries of anthropology itself.

For the complete schedule, please visit: http://ucscanthro.tumblr.com/schedule.