This year’s symposium examines the ways in which plastic infiltrates our lives, landscapes, and bodies, causing—as Rob Nixon illuminates—gradual and invisible damage. We are pleased to host a variety of speakers that interrogate this theme through art, science, and poetry. Our final session will be a screening of the 2017 documentary Albatross, which calls us to witness the slow, yet devastating, impact of plastic and other waste in the heart of the Pacific.
The symposium is free and open to the public and will be livestreamed and recorded via YouTube Live. For more information, contact Courtney Burns at [email protected]
9:00 to
9:50 a.m.
CB-511
Panel Discussion
"Micro-plastics at Utah Lake"
Knowns and Unknowns
Luke Peterson and Addy Valdez
Utah Lake Authority
10:00 to
10:50 a.m.
CB-511
Lecture
"Again and Again and Again"
Jared Steffensen
Artist and Curator of Exhibitions, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
11:00 to
11:50 a.m.
CB-511
Keynote Address
"The Cost of Convenience"
Environmental Consequences of the Plastic Age
Sally Rocks
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, UVU
1:00 to
1:50 p.m.
CB-511
Poetry Reading
"Plasticene Poetics"
A Reading of Original Works by UVU Students & Faculty
UVU Students and Faculty
Moderator: Brock Jones
Associate Professor of English & Literature, UVU
2:00 to
3:40 p.m.
CB-511
Film Screening
"Albatross"
The documentary Albatross by artist Chris Jordan is a visual exploration of the devastating impact of plastic pollution on albatrosses, particularly on Midway Atoll, where the film was shot. Through the birds' life cycles of birth, life, and death, the film presents a profound metaphor for our relationship with the environment, contrasting the breathtaking beauty of the natural sanctuary with the horror of plastic-filled corpses of baby albatrosses. The documentary is a call to awareness and a catalyst for reflection on our consumption and its consequences.
Treats will be served
Brock Jones
Associate Professor, Department of English and Literature, UVU
Brock Jones teaches creative writing at Utah Valley University where he is an associate professor and chair of the Department of English. He is the author of Cenotaph (University of Arkansas Press, 2016) a full-length collection of poetry based on his experience as a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan, and finalist in the 2016 Miller Williams Poetry Prize. His writing has appeared in 2River View, Baltimore Review, Iowa Review, Lunch Ticket, Ninth Letter Online, Poetry Daily, War, Literature and the Arts, and elsewhere.
Luke Peterson
Executive Director, Utah Lake Authority
For the past 15 years, Luke has been involved in strategic communications, government relations, economic development and cross-sector partnerships, and several other leadership roles in navigating major land use issues. Luke is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, and has worked for local governments in five states. He has also built a civic innovation network with the Cities of Boston and Philadelphia and helped actor Richard Dreyfuss launch a nonprofit to advance civic education.
Sally Rocks
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, UVU
Dr. Sally Rocks is an inorganic and environmental Chemist. She received her BS in Chemistry from Bucknell University, PhD in Bioinorganic Chemistry from the University of Rochester, and completed postdoctoral work in environmental geochemistry at Princeton University. After working on hydrometallurgical process Research and Development, she left industry and joined the faculty at Utah Valley University in 2017. Her academic research interests are varied, but her primary focus is on the quantification of microplastics in environmental reservoirs.
Jared Steffensen
Artist and Curator of Exhibitions, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
Jared Steffensen is an artist and Curator of Exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City, UT. He earned a BFA in Intermedia Sculpture from the University of Utah in 2002 and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006. He was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant in 2006. His artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States and in Mexico, Germany, and the Netherlands. His curatorial work is largely focused on local and regional issues of the Intermountain West, including the exhibitions Desire Lines, Working Hard to Be Useless, Shady Acres, and As the Lake Fades.
Addy Valdez
Conservation & Education Programs Manager, Utah Lake Authority
Addy has two bachelor’s degrees in both Biology and Environmental Science from Rocky Mountain College (Montana). She is pursuing a Master’s in Natural Resource Stewardship from Colorado State University and will graduate in spring of 2026. Addy has worked in a variety of settings regarding conservation and ecological research, focusing on the Intermountain West. Addy manages invasive vegetation and native plant restoration, leads creation of education content, writes various grants and planning documents, helps to find gaps in Utah Lake research, aids other organizations on their own projects, and gets out in the field as much as she can.
This symposium is named in honor of our late friend and colleague David R. Keller
who served as director of the Center for the Study of Ethics from 1999-2013.
