Berkeley doesn't have proper dissertation defenses, but we do have required exit talks. It's a celebratory occasion - it's so great to see what everyone has been up to for the last six or seven years. Feels good to put this out there!

I had the chance to present a snippet of my research at a conference called Earth Writing hosted by the Institute for South Asia Studies at UC Berkeley. The focus of the conference was on the "graphy" part of geography - how do we write about the earth? Full lineup printed here.

I'm excited to be giving two conference presentations over the next month:

• "Geology of Consciousness: Tin and the Unmodernization of Mining in Bolivia." Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Boston, April 6.
• "Extraction after Dispossession: Bolivian mining cooperatives and Indigenous Capitalism?" Congress of the Latin American Studies Association. Lima, April 30.

In the first presentation I will be exploring the relationship between material rock formations and what is read as evidence "consciousness" in a Marxist tradition, also pointing to the racism embedded in this term.