The International and Global Studies (INST) program is pleased to announce the final lecture in their Speakers' Series on Global Development and Sustainability for 2023-2024. Dr. Jayson M. Porter will give a talk entitled: "Strong Enough to Remove Dirt Skin: Coconut Soap, and Other Early Histories of Biofuels in the US and Mexico."

The talk will be held on March 7, from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Student Success Center (CORD 349). In this lecture, Dr. Porter will talk about the negative impact of the soap industry. Dr. Porter explains that, "In chemistry terms, making soap is a delicate process of crafting a solution strong enough to remove dirt but not strong enough to remove the skin. In the political economy and ecology of soap making, however, oilseed enclaves tend to be gilded and clean on the outside but underneath burn the poorest and most exposed producers of raw these materials." His talk focuses on Guerrero between the 1930s and 1960s and the coconut and sesame producing ejidos that cultivated the biochemical fuel for the Mexican Miracle. His talk tries to answer the question: did the soap industry benefit oilseed farmers in Mexico? Dr. Porter will also explain how politicians and industrialists argued that soap could sanitize marginalization away from isolated farming communities, but, in fact, soap-making actually placed these communities in harm's way.

Dr. Porter is a Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Institute at Brown University for Environment and Society and a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research specializes in environmental politics, science and technology studies, food systems, and racial ecologies in Mexico and the Americas. Dr. Porter is an editorial board member of the North American Congress for Latin America (NACLA) and Plant Perspectives: An Interdisciplinary Journal, a staff blogger for Black Perspectives and an environmental specialist for Noria Research's Mexico and Central America Program.

The Global Development and Sustainability Series continues to bring in leading experts on issues concerning global sustainability. Through these talks, students and faculty are exposed to a variety of methodological approaches to issues regarding development and sustainability. Stay tuned for more information about our next guest speakers in fall 2024!

For questions about this event, please contact INST Acting Director Dr. Kelly Hammond, kah018@uark.edu.