This project researches everyday toxic relationships between coal and human-non-human bodies in Silesia, Poland. Poland has one of the longest histories of coal mining in the world. It offers a rich and complex case study for thinking through the notion of both fossil fuel peoples and natures. It has also experienced incredible transformations and upheavals over the last century alone, with current tensions over its faltering coal industry mounting. Focusing on visceral encounters between breathing bodies and coal, Irma Allen will in her research trace the transforming materializations of coal dust and its political ecologies from earth to air, through the labour of coal mining, the burning of coal, and the uneven circulations of air pollution.

Project Leader: Irma Allen