Distinguished Lecture Series 26-27: Workshop by Prof. Crispin Thurlow

Workshop: Messy Methods and the Semiotics of (Urban) Waste

Speaker: Crispin Thurlow, Professor, University of Bern (with Charmaine Kong, PhD student, University of Bern)

2:00PM November 5, 2026 (Wed)

Abstract

In this hands-on workshop and following closely on the conceptual heels of Crispin’s Distinguished Lecture, we will introduce our approach to so-called “messy methods” (cf. Law, 2004). This entails a way of doing research which respects the messiness of everyday life, and which resists the usual academic impulse to tidy things up for analytical convenience. And it is no coincidence that “messy methods” is such an ideal framework for exploring and uncovering the semiotic, spatial and material entanglements of waste. In this regard, and by way or two or three practical techniques, participants will be invited to consider how their own work is structured by waste and wasting.

Biography

Crispin Thurlow is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Bern, Switzerland, where he is also Affiliate Professor in the Center for the Study of Language and Society. He is an Associate Researcher in the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. For more information, visit www.crispinthurlow.net.

This is an in-person only event. We welcome you to sign up.

If quota via Enventbrite is full, please sign up through the link below.

https://english.hku.hk/event/619/Professor_Crispin_Thurlow_-_Public_Lecture_&_Workshop