Schnitzer School Spring 2026 Ring Lecture Transnational Trashscapes: Enframing Global Waste Management in Nikolaus Geyrhalter's documentary Matter Out of Place

Dr. Xan Holt, Assistant Professor of German in the Department of German and Scandinavian Studies

Join us for the spring installment of the Ring Lecture where Professor Xan Holt will discuss the images of waste disposal sites from across the globe in Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s documentary Matter Out of Place. The film confronts the viewer with the unfamiliar scales and impacts of contemporary waste through its employment of three experimental techniques: 1) a discontinuous organization that disrupts traditional understandings of ‘waste flow’; 2) a single-point perspective that decenters the human gaze; and 3) a jarring editing practice that reveals the entanglement of manmade waste and the ‘natural’ world. This presentation is part of Dr. Holt’s book project that analyzes contemporary German-language texts and films laboring to depict newer forms of waste (e.g., micro- and nanoplastics, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and e-waste).

Dr. Xan Holt specializes in the environmental humanities; migration and diaspora studies; transnational and world literature; and film, television, and new media. Xan has published articles in several German studies journals (such as The Germanic Review and Monatshefte), as well as chapters in collected volumes and contributions to the annual publications (Jahrbücher) of the Uwe Johnson Society and the Arno Schmidt Society. He is on the editorial board of The Germanic Review.