Talks & Events
2021
Sunday, October 10: Dead Horse Bay: The Case for an Archaeology of New York’s Contemporary Past. Archaeological Institute of America, Long Island Society
Friday, September 24: When the “Away” Becomes Real. Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University
Tuesday, June 29: Garbage in Gotham: History Overlooked and Underfoot. Two Sigma
Saturday, May 8: Waste History. NYC Zero Waste Academy, Sanitation Foundation
Saturday, March 6: The Collective Unseen & the Potential of Visibility. Discarded: Unmasking & Understanding the Waste Stream. 2021 Lear-Conant Symposium, Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment, Connecticut College, New London, CT
Tuesday, February 23: Change the Focus: Challenges of Waste Measurement and Management. Hugo Neu Corporation Sustainability Seminar Series; Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, Steven Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
2020
Saturday, October 17: Collegiate Scholars, NYU
Tuesday, October 6 | 6:30-800: New York & Its Garbage — conversation with Martin Melosi, waste historian and author of the first definitive history of Fresh Kills landfill. Gotham Center for New York City History, City University of New York. Free but advance registration requested.
Thursday, October 1: Anthropology Student Club, NYU
Thursday, February 13: Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson
2019
Autumn: Presentations to new hires and newly promoted officers, New York City Department of Sanitation
November 20: Rodent Control Academy / New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, New York
May 1: Rodent Control Academy / New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, New York
April 2: Discussant for “The Consequences of Consumption: Waste Management in the Global South” — talk by Simonetta Tunesi, NYU
January 10: Day-long symposium, Academy for Teachers
2018
November 8: St. John’s University, Queens, NY
October 27: NYU Alumni Day
October 18: Friends Seminary, New York
September 5: Unteachables / Caveat, New York
June 28: Reclaiming Urban Heritage: Forgotten Legacies of Deliberate Geography / Interrogating the Urban / NYU Liberal Studies Summer Symposium / Florence, Italy
June 21: ThoughtMatter Summer Salon / NYC
May 8: New York at Its Core: The Archaeology / Museum of the City of New York
May 2: Rodent Control Academy / New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, New York
April 28: Walking tour of Dead Horse Bay / City Reliquary Museum
April 3: Leadership and the Environment / New York University
March 23: Confrontations with Ephemeral Permanence / Environments of Modernity Conference, Slought Foundation/University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
March 8: Science of the Living City / Pace University, New York
2017
December 12: Victory Boulevard, For Real / Freshkills Park Field R/D, Sunview Luncheonette, Brooklyn
December 1: Epistemological Hazards of Curbside Recycling in the Anthropocene / American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Washington DC
November 18: Shifting the Flow. Freegan Meeting, Judson Church Assembly Hall, 239 Thompson Street, New York
November 6: Presentation to the Sanitation Retirees Association, Staten Island, NY
October 25: Canadian Waste to Resource Conference, Keynote Speaker / Niagara Falls, Ontario
October 19: NYU Liberal Studies Global Lecture Series with China Miéville and Samuel Delany (co-moderator, with Heather Masri) / New York University
October 17: Rodent Control Academy / New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, New York
October 14: Staten Island Transfer Station tour (co-host) / Open House New York Weekend
October 4: Guides Association of New York City / The Bronx
August 21: A Brief History of New York’s Department of Sanitation / DSNY Safety & Training Center, Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn
June 21: Waste Waterways Boat Tour (co-host & guide) / Open House New York
June 3: Closet Archaeology Exhibition Opening / City Reliquary Museum
May 18: Durst Organization Leadership Retreat / 4 Times Square, New York
May 1: New York City’s Dis-Contents / Getting to Zero, Open House New York / SVA Theater, 333 W 23 St
April 6: Educating for Sustainability / New York University
March 28: Zero Waste Roundtable II / New York City Department of Sanitation
March 26: Treasure in the Trash at the M11 Garage (with Nelson Molina) / Open House New York
February 27: Open House New York Board of Directors / 1133 Broadway, New York
2016
December 16: Commissioners’ Luncheon / City Hall, New York
December 11: Educators’ Seminar Day Keynote Address / Museum of the City of New York
November 21: Moderating Our Pesky Neighbors, Part 3: Rats / Brooklyn Historical Society
November 13: Moderating a Zero-Waste Roundtable I / Queens Museum
October 9: Chinatown Walk & Talk with artist Jean Shin, sponsored by City as Living Laboratory / Chatham Square in Lower Manhattan
October 6: Untold Stories: Sanitation & the September 11 Response / 9/11 Tribute Center, 120 Liberty Street, New York
June 23: Labor, Literature and Landmark Lecture Series / The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, New York (link opens to a video of the talk)
June 10: Lunch and Learn lecture series, New York City Department of Environmental Protection
June 7: Fireside Chat, on behalf of the Museum of the City of New York
April 21: Earth Month Celebration (with Nelson Molina) / Material for the Arts, New York
April 14: Recycling as Faith Practice / College of the Environment, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
March 8: NYU in Ft. Lauderdale / Ft. Lauderdale Country Club, Plantation, FL
February 29: On Becoming a Scholar of Trash / University of Maryland-College Park
February 4: Sagan National Colloquium / Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
January 14: Say It Ain’t Snow! How New York Battles Winter in the Village & Beyond / Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, New York
2015
December 2: The City Reliquary presents Collector’s Night 2015 (with Nelson Molina) / Brooklyn Historical Society
November 18: The Wonder of Waste: Urban Legacies of Collective Forgetfulness / College of Arts and Science Bentson Dean’s Lecture, New York University
November 13: Waste, Sustainability, Environment / Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
October 29: Cultural Heritage and the Wonders of Waste / Smith College, Northampton, MA
October 17 & 18: DSNY Facility Tours: Central Repair Shop, Hamilton Avenue Transfer Station, Manhattan 11 Garage / Open House New York Weekend
September 17: How Brooklyn Works: Trash Pick-up (with DSNY guests) / Brooklyn Historical Society
August 17: Life Along the Curb: Inside the Department of Sanitation / Final lecture in the series Garbage & the City, sponsored by the Museum of the City of New York, the New York Academy of Medicine, and ARCHIVE Global
July 22: How Street Cleaners Saved the City / Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY
July 14: Urban Hygiene & Neglected History / Montclair State University, NJ
June 24: Time~Trash~Treasure: The Challenges of Dead Horse Bay / 5 Gyres, Gateway Marina, Brooklyn
June 10: Game-Changing Initiatives for Solid Waste in New York City / NYS SWANA, Cooper Union
May 5: Rodent Control Academy / NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, NYC
March 7: Producing Waste, Producing Space / School of Architecture, Princeton University
January 13: Solid Waste & Collective Forgetfulness / Open House New York
2014
November 24: Waste Infrastructure as Cultural Heritage / Marymount Manhattan College
October 30: Moral Hygiene & Urban Infrastructure / Barnard College
October 15: How Brooms Let Light into the Slum / Tenement Museum
October 11 & 12: DSNY Facility Tours, Open House New York Weekend
October 10: A Brief History of the DSNY / Sanitation Training Center, Brooklyn
October 9: The Truth in Trash / Q Commons
October 8: Board of Overseers, Graduate School of Arts and Science / NYU
August 12: Getting It Up & Getting It Down / Keynote address, Oral History Summer Institute / Regional Oral History Office, UC-Berkeley
July 17: Go with the Flow: Sanitation & New York’s Waterways / Greenwich Village Society for History Preservation, NYC
June 18: Getting Wasted: The Future of NYC Garbage and Its Impact on Our Urban Environment / Center for Architecture, NYC
May 17: Streets of the Future: The Great Urban Debate / Panel discussion sponsored by Gizmodo, NYC
May 7: Rodent Control Academy / NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street
April 24: unCOMMON Salon Series @ the Research Commons / Bobst Library, NYU
March 20: Invisible Trash: Exploring New York City’s Garbage / Atlas Obscura, Brooklyn, NY
March 13: Cityscapes Seminar / Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
February 27: Department of Anthropology, Temple University
February 26: Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University
February 5: Keep America Beautiful National Conference / Charlotte, NC
January 30: Winter’s Here? Snow Way! / Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, NYC
January 8: Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board / One Bryant Park, NYC
2013
December 6: Urban Futures: Ethnographies & Histories / Department of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
December 5: Humanities Initiative at NYU (with DSNY Commissioner John Doherty)
November 25: Bookbug Bookstore / Kalamazoo, MI
November 24: American Anthropological Association Annual Conference / Chicago, IL
November 14: Center for Urban Environmental Reform / CUNY Law School
October 28-29: Wabash College / Crawfordsville, IN
October 24: New York Public Library / Mid-Manhattan Branch, 455 Fifth Avenue, NYC
October 10: National Writers Union / Live webcast interview
October 3: Civic Service Forum / Parsons The New School, NYC
September 29: Freshkills Sneak Peak / Freshkills Stories Oral History; walking tour, Freshkills Park, Staten Island, NYC
September 26: How Sanitation Saved New York / 80 Lafayette Residence Hall, NYU
September 24: History of NYC Sanitation / 300 West Block Association, St. Paul’s German Lutheran Church, NYC
September 20: TED Talk / The Times Center, NYC
August 13: Trash Talk: An Evening with NYC Sanitation / Museum of the City of New York
July 18: “You Can’t Dump That Here!” A History of Sanitation in New York / Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, NYC
June 12: Citizens Budget Commission / 33 West 81 Street, NYC
April 29: Commentator, “Trash Dance” documentary film / reRun Theater, Brooklyn & April 25, Monroe Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
March 28: Celebrating the Women of Sanitation / Municipal Building, 1 Center Street, NYC
March 26: Rodent Control Academy / Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, NYC
Robin Nagle 