Rare Earths and Precious Kin: Writing the Pacific in an Age of Deep-Sea Mining and Indigenous Resurgence

GLAM Lecture Series (Guest Lectures in American studies Münster

Dr.Katharina Fackler, Bonn University

While we still know very little about the deep sea, the depths of the Pacific provide fertile ground for speculation. Some companies and nation states are hoping that, through deep-sea mining, they will be able to access large quantities of rare earths needed for the green energy transition. In Indigenous Pacific Islander cultures, in contrast, the ocean figures as a relative, not as a resource. This lecture opens up a conversation among different cultural representations of the deep sea, asking how literary forms and practices shape ocean imaginaries and marine ethics.