I received my doctoral degree in STS at the Université Paris Cité (CERMES3) in December 2023, with a dissertation titled “In the Name of The Environment. Stocamine: Converting a Mining Area by Burying Hazardous Waste”. The dissertation traces the history of Stocamine, an underground storage site containing tens of thousands of tons of hazardous industrial waste comprising various chemical compounds, minerals, heavy metals, and other toxic products. Based on an analysis of five sequences during which the creation, operation and difficult closure of Stocamine were negotiated, the dissertation explores the competing versions of the underground storage narratives that sometimes promise to solve the problem of the accumulation of hazardous waste, other times promise to keep the mine going, and others still threaten to pollute the water table.
I joined the CSI as a postdoctoral fellow in February 2024. I am currently working on a research project on the underground storage of carbon dioxide in France and Norway, as part of the SESAME project, funded by the PEPR SPLEEN-Decarbonation of Industry programme. This research extends some of the questions raised in my thesis, especially those regarding the social and political conditions under which the underground comes to existence as a place to dispose of industrial pollution.
