Lecture at ISEK Zurich: Beyond Sargassum

I recently had the pleasure of presenting my talk Beyond Sargassum: Narrating Ecological Disaster in Mexico as part of the Lecture Series in Social Anthropology at ISEK – Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Zurich. My talk explored how marine scientists themselves navigate these entanglements. Their experiences reveal Sargassum not only as a source of harm but also of beauty, productivity, and curiosity. By focusing on the embodied, often emotional engagements of researchers, I argued for more nuanced environmental storytelling—ones that move beyond binaries of damage and purity. I’m grateful to ISEK for the invitation and the rich discussion that followed.

https://www.isek.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:c2f82aa6-e066-4f66-bbfa-1b0898ceeeac/LectureSeries25AbstractPosterOtto.pdf