Science, power, and narrative justice: The Vajont Dam Disaster (Italy, 1963)

The Institute of the History of Science (iHC) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) invites you to the inaugural conference of the 2023/24 academic year. The conference will be given by Professor Marco Armiero, researcher at ICREA and at the Institute of History of Science and is entitled "Science, power, and narrative justice: The Vajont Dam Disaster (Italy, 1963)". On 9 October 1963, two thousand people died when they were swallowed by a wave of water and mud triggered by a gigantic landslide that sank the Vajont basin. In 2008, UNESCO listed it among the five most serious anthropogenic environmental disasters, describing it as "a classic example of what happens when engineers and geologists are unable to understand the nature of the problem they are trying to address". The Vajont dam is still there, proving that high engineering alone is not enough to avoid a disaster.

Based on his recently published book, La Tragèdia del Vajont. Ecologia politica di un disastro (Einaudi 2023), Marco Armiero uses this case study to decipher the intersection of science, politics and collective memory in the creation of socio-ecological relations. Marco Armiero has worked on issues related to fascism and nature, migration and the environment, and environmental justice. In addition, he is the editor-in-chief of "Resistance: A Journal of Radical Environmental Humanities" (Nebraska UP, formerly Resilience).