2023 Anne and Sandy Dolowitz Lecture in Human Rights - International Studies - College of Humanities

Thursday, March 26, 2026 - 12:30pm - Alumni House

2026dolo

Space exploration, energy generation, warfare, disaster recovery: these activities rely on technologies and infrastructures positioned on Earth or in space. Hardware is comprised of minerals, metals, and materials—many now designated as ‘critical’ by national governments—that must be wrested from the Earth and fed into supply chains. Nearly all large-scale problems, and therefore nearly all solutions, rest on this extractive imperative. Yet this very imperative exacerbates many of the same problems it purports to solve: displacement, insecurity, and human suffering. This dilemma shapes our collective imagination of what kinds of futures are possible on Earth and in Space, and therefore what kinds of legal and physical infrastructures are needed for their realization.

Based on fieldwork in mining, energy, policy, and space development on four continents, this talk investigates how this dilemma plays out across sectors and places through common but often conflicting needs for critical minerals and interrogates the potential futures engendered by these regimes to explore the fundamental question of what, and whom, is worth saving in the race for critical minerals below the ground and in the heavens.

2025-2026 Anne and Sandy Dolowitz Lecture in Human Rights