Photo credit: Daniel Balles
terosThis event is part of the A tmospheric Apparitions mini-symposium on Sept 18-19 2025. It is is free and open to the public. We encourage you to visit the departmental Atmospheric Apparitions: Particle Pollutants – Dust\, Ash\, Smog and Smoke! exhibition in the Liu Lobby Gallery on view from July 21-Sept 26\, 2025. Co-sponso red by UBC Public Humanities Hub< /a>
Photo credit: Daniel Balles
terosSpeaker:
Javier Arbona-Homar
Associate Professor departments
of American Studies and Design at the University of California at Davi
s (UC Davis)
Talk title:
after explosivit
y\, what remains?
Abstract:
In this talk\, I’ll
draw from my new book\, Explosivity: Following What
Remains\, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press\, 2025—as well as briefly introduce recent research directions—to pr
esent a growing body of work that examines deeply held assumptions about ap
pearance and disappearance in landscapes. More than an academic book
\, Explosivity is “a vit
al guide to confronting the latent violence embedded in our environments\,”
according to artist and geographer Trevor Paglen. It’s a call for s
lowing down\, sensing\, and remembering what remains of historical explosio
ns. Explosivity is grounded and written i
n the unceded Ohlone lands of the so-called San Francisco Bay Area. As a ci
ty of explosivity\, this urban region is shaped by the industrialization of
geophysical combustion fixed into place. Based on five major explosions in
the Bay Area between 1866 and 2011\, this experimental and creative book p
roposes “explosivity” as a novel lens to study the everyday racialized expo
sure to volatile chemicals. But how to sense explosivity? One provisional a
nswer is through explosivity’s atmospheres and aerosolized dusts\, presente
d here through geostories from the book as well as cases in graphic design
to anticipate and control explosivity.
Speaker bio:
Dr. Javier Arbona-Homar is a Puerto Ric
an geographer and an Associate Professor with a dual appointment in the dep
artments of American Studies and Design at the University of California\, D
avis. He was previously a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in American Stud
ies at Davis\, a UC Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Residential Resea
rch Fellow on Civil Wars at UC Irvine\, and a Ford Foundation Dissertation
Fellow at UC Berkeley. He received a PhD in geography from Berkeley (with t
raining in oral history)\, a master’s in urbanism and architecture studies
from MIT\, and a professional undergraduate degree in architecture from Cor
nell University.
Arbona-Homar is an experimental scholar focusing on the emerging field of explosivity studies (how\, when\, and whe re things do\, or do not\, blow up—and why). He researches the spatial poli tics of landscapes shaped by explosions—or the latent potential thereof—and the racial conditions of explosions. For over a decade\, he has also colla borated with the demilit collective on geofictions\, soundscapes\, and crit ical walking tours.
His new research dives into topics su
ch as: explosive atmospheres\, the historical geography of dynamite logisti
cs\, the mobility of remains and memory from the so-called Spanish American
War\, and the theorization of transoceanic coloniality. He co-leads Critic
al Military\, Security\, and Policing Studies\, a Davis Humanities Institut
e-funded working group that brings together graduate students\, faculty\, a
nd community members to dissect myriad forms of violence and securitization
. His writing and collective contributions have also appeared in the Harvard Design Magazine\, Landscap
e Journal\, Places Journal\, and <
span class="s11">Volume\, as well as in curated exhibitions and
various edited collections.
Respondent:
Peter Hudson (UBC Geograp
hy)
This is an in person event< strong> hosted in xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees - Liu Institute.
A recording of the event will be available on the Public Humanities Hub.
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