Stories to Save Lives: Environmental Toxicity and Narration in Two Italian Sites
Seger's current research examines the ways in which narrative expression allows receptive audiences to make sense of chemically induced change to land and bodies in two Italian sites. Focusing on industrially driven environmental crises in the cities of Seveso and Taranto, she considers the potential of narrative – whether through literature, film, performance art, or more – to foster cognitive and emotional sense making in the wake of extreme exposure to dioxin, a largely imperceptible and temporally ambiguous persistent organic pollutant.
Monica Seger will be the fourth presenter in the year-long lecture series Innovative Interdisciplinary Directions in Francophone, French, and Italian Studies.
