The Ghosts of Buildings: Dust as a Lingering Earthquake

• In Event: Disaster Environments: Human/Non-Human Entanglements in the Wake of Catastrophe

Abstract

The ruination caused by seismic events is not merely the destruction of buildings, but rather a transformation of the built environment into different materials: to rubble, to dust. This paper will investigate the role of dust in narratives of earthquake, using accounts of the 1988 Spitak earthquake and more contemporary examples to propose a framework for talking about the incursion of impalpable disaster refuse into the lives of survivors. Ultimately, the paper will argue dust as a product of the built environment extends the social life of earthquakes far beyond the seismic event.

Author

• Evangeline McGlynn, Harvard U