Public Talk: Jackie Wang (Brown University) for a talk titled “The Ocean as a New Frontier of Capital Accumulation”

Presented by Cultural Studies, as part of the “Borders and Circuits of Politics and Thought” Series.
Drawing on Marxist ecological thought, this lecture will examine the complex interplay between colonial history, indigenous politics, geoeconomics, and environmentalism in the context of deep-sea mining. On April 25, 2025, Pres. Tr*mp issued an executive order aimed at jump-starting the deep-sea mining industry by fast-tracking seabed mining permits in an effort to break China’s control over the critical minerals supply chain. Although the US is not a member of the International Seabed Authority (ISA)—the global body that governs the seabed in international waters—the US has forged ahead with their seabed mining plans in the name of national and economic security. Additionally, the “green energy” transition has launched a scramble for minerals such as lithium, cobalt, copper, and nickel, which are essential for electric vehicle batteries. This, along with the US-China conflict over rare earths, has catalyzed interest in deep-sea mining in the Pacific. Yet little is known about how the mining of polymetallic nodules on the seabed of the Pacific’s Clarion Clipperton Zone will affect delicate ocean ecosystems. Wang will explore the new modes of extraction that have ushered in what she calls ‘oceanic primitive accumulation.’