You are invited to join us at the second biennial
SOAS
SHIT CONFERENCE
An interdisciplinary conference on excrement, past, present and
future
to be hosted
at
Tuesday 18
– Wednesday 19 November 2025
VENUE:
DATE: Tuesday 18 – Wednesday 19 November
2025
[The dates are, respectively, World Shit Day and the UN’s World
Toilet Day]
FORMAT: In-person conference, with possible distance presentations.
ADMISSION: Free, and open to the general
public. You are requested to register in advance [see below].
Conference Prospectus
The starting point for our 2023 conference was the collecting and
trading of human and animal excrement as an organic fertiliser,
both solid and liquid, throughout the ages.
However, this is one of those commodities that dares
not speak its name, due to taboos that surround the topic. The widespread
euphemism ‘nightsoil’ is one of many that obscures the subject.
We therefore felt it necessary to work within an interdisciplinary
frame of reference, and to extend our brief into a wider terrain, probing the
social, psychological, and cultural issues arising out of this most human of topics.
The 2025 conference continues that interdisciplinary vein.
However, this year we shall also continue work that we began in
2023 – to work towards the drafting of a Shit Manifesto that can provide a
framework for future campaigning and activism.
We invite all persons who are interested to join us at the
conference.
REGISTRATION: To register for the
conference, please write to:
Please note that, in today’s parlance, we shall deal with both
poop and pee.
We also request that you circulate this conference invitation to
colleagues who may be interested.
_____________________________________________________
LIST OF
SPEAKERS
[listed in alphabetical order]
_____________________________________________________
1. An ethnography of toilet
practices at SOAS,
Ed Emery [SOAS,
2. A proposition for faecal typologies in archaeology
Eleanor Green [
3. From infrastructure to inclusion: gendered and
intersectional insights for sustainable sanitation
Pascale
Hofmann [
4. From valuable fertiliser to
disgusting trash (and back?) – a German city history
of shit and the social construction of value
Lina Kieseritzky [
5.
Sketching the genealogy of contemporary dry toilets
Marine Legrand [Research fellow, LEESU (ENPC,
France)]
6. “Our condition is most close to
the joyous redemptions of shit” – Scatopolitical
fragments
Cy Lecerf Maulpoix
[EHESS/CEMS, Paris]
7. Caught short on the stressful streets: the lack of
public toilets in Kilburn, north
John Miles [Kilburn Older Voices Exchange (KOVE)]
8. Beyond the sewer: the stable assumptions yet unstable future
of the freshwater-flush toilet
Sarah Nahar and Nick Kawa [The
9. Moving
bowels and the moving image: faeces on film in the
age of mechanical reproduction
Benjin Pollock [Independent researcher]
10. Blood and shit: what public toilets tell us about periods
Lauren Powdrell [SOAS,
11. Bad investments and the enshittification
of
Matt Schneider [
12. To pee or not to pee: youth
navigation of shared sanitation in Mumbai’s informal settlements
Hoang Tran [Independent researcher]
Riddhi Khandhar
[Independent researcher]
__________
ABSTRACTS
__________
A proposition for faecal typologies in archaeology
Eleanor Green [
Abstract: A large part of archaeological
research is the investigation of rubbish and waste. Arguably faeces is the epitome of human waste. The content of
our most shameful byproduct reveals a great deal about our lives and health.
Today's flush and forget society leaves little need for sanitation
consideration amongst the general public, but for most of human history a key
question has influenced societal organisation: what we can do with all this
shit?
In this talk I will give a brief
overview of historical sanitation before exploring some of the conditions faeces does survive in the
archaeological record. As a bioarchaeologist, I
consider how these different preservation mechanisms affect the survival of biomolecules within the faecal
matrix. Due to the fundamental differences of these materials I propose a
typology which could be applied in archaeological settings to further the
analysis of preserved faeces. Think archaeology meets
the Bristol Stool Chart!
CV:
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
From valuable fertiliser to disgusting trash
(and back?) – a German city history of shit
and the social construction of value
Lina Kieseritzky [
Abstract: An
implementation of sustainable approaches for the processing of shit is
currently limited by a socially widely established devaluation of shit as
trash. Nevertheless, shit used to be valued in the past and has been seen for a
long time of civilisation as a useful fertiliser. A historical perspective reveals an era of
radical change regarding the handling, practice and social valuation of shit at
the end of the 18th century. The evolution of dungpiles
to cesspits and later to water closets is embedded in a history of
technological advancements, science and reconfiguration of social values
regarding hygiene and any kind of dirt. While the development of public sewage
systems did play an important role for improving hygienic conditions and
health, the perception of feces changed. These developments shaped not only
infrastructure and laws – it also shaped the social construction of shit as
trash. This contribution will use the German city of
CV: Lina Kieseritzky is a master's
student in sociology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. In her
current master's thesis, she examines practices and perceptions surrounding the
handling of feces and urine in Germany by conducting qualitative interviews on
contemporary implementations and analysing historical
documents. Her academic interests center on urban and spatial sociological
perspectives on public toilet inequality as well as sanitation and nutrient
transitions. Her bachelor’s thesis explored how public restrooms or their
absence shape the co-construction of space and gender. She applies qualitative
research methods and is dedicated to uncovering the links between sanitation,
social inequality, and urban life.
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
“Our condition is most close to
the joyous redemptions of shit” – Scatopolitical
fragments
Cy Lecerf Maulpoix
[EHESS/CEMS, Paris]
“We gays know this very well, and
our condition is most close to the joyous redemption of shit
,” wrote italian activist Mario Mieli. This presentation aims not only to redeem the place
of excremental matter in queer experience and imaginaries, but also to analyse the biopolitical
processes that regulate and discipline the lives of dissidents of the sexual
and racial order in relation to more specific forms of « scatopolitics » (McGlotten; Webel, 2016) organizing the flow, management, and exclusion
of excremental matter.
Starting from Sigmund Freud's
concept of Erdenrest, which articulates the
very notion of modern civilization with abjection through excrement and sexual
shame, this presentation will explore different perspectives through various
critical fragments. Amongst others: a critique of the shame of shit through
social media and porn hygienism; a quick history of
abject masculinities during the French Revolution; a study of the links between
“gay bowel syndrome”, shit and the AIDS epidemic; sexual imperialism and
post-colonial internet jokes around eating feces; an emancipatory
reinterpretation of Bruno Latour’s concept of
« earthling » through different texts produced by queer and gay
activists of the 70’s.
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
Poo constellations: systematic therapy for human excreta
management
Marieke Meesters [
Abstract: This contribution presents a
workshop methodology that adapts family constellation therapy principles to
address human excreta management. This research project draws on scholarly
observations that social science research mimics therapy for allowing people to
be heard, for creating space to reimagine relations,
and to prefigure possibilities to act. Family constellation therapy focuses on
non-verbal and unconscious communication and dynamics within family systems.
Participants explore such dynamics through spatial positioning and
phenomenological awareness. Building on this established therapeutic
methodology, I am developing a novel research approach that applies
constellation methodology to explore affects, practices and perspectives
vis-à-vis human excreta flows and their potential uses within agricultural
contexts. In the workshops, therapeutic facilitators guide participants through
representative positioning exercises, physically mapping relationships between
key stakeholders, materials, and processes within sanitation and agricultural
waste systems. Through systemic questioning and targeted interventions,
participants identify and resolve blockages in their perceptions of and
practices concerning feces and urine management patterns, addressing cultural
taboos and social barriers that impede effective nutrient recycling. The
project is currently in active development in collaboration with therapeutic
practitioners, and seeks additional collaborators to refine constellation
representative roles, to develop appropriate inquiry frameworks, and to design
effective systemic interventions for sustainable agriculture, sanitation and
water use contexts.
CV:
Dr Marieke Meesters (
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
Caught short on the stressful streets: the lack of
public toilets in Kilburn, North London
John Miles [Kilburn Older Voices Exchange (KOVE)]
Abstract: KOVE was set up in Camden in 2001 as a
community development project, based in a local authority day centre close to
Kilburn High Road. Working with the multi-media project Acting Up, coordinator
Mel Wright aligned older people’s understanding of the inhospitable street
environment with their sense of civic responsibility. ‘For Your Convenience’
(2006,) filmed in the street, captured the outrage of older and younger
residents alike at the lack of toilets on the mile-long shopping street, once
known as ‘the Oxford Street of North-West London’. Public toilets are not a
statutory requirement and local authorities began closing them in the 1980s, a
process which intensified in the last couple of decades. But drawing attention
to the problem and resolving it are very different things. In this paper I
explore the twists and turns of KOVE’s efforts over
twenty years, highlighting the decision to collaborate with other groups which
emerged with the publication of the Toilet Manifesto for
References:
Bichard, J-A and Ramster, G 2025 Designing Inclusive Public Toilets: Wee The People Bloomsbury Visual Arts,
Stamwell-Smith, R
2019 Taking the P***: The Decline of the Great
British Public Toilet Royal society of Public Health, John Snow House.
https://kove.org.uk/short-films/
CV: After a
few years in street theatre I started as a community development worker with
older people since 1978. I was Hackney’s carer support worker during the 1990s,
worked for Camden Council at the height of the Blair government’s programme
Better Government for Older People and completed a doctoral study of the City
of Manchester’s intergenerational initiatives in 2014. I served on the
executive of the British Society of Gerontology from 2007 to 2013 and am
currently chair of the Association for Education and Ageing. Besides my
obsessions with toilets and jazz and composting I have been convenor of the
Haringey Rivers Forum since 2018.
__________
Moving bowels
and the moving image: Faeces on film in the age of
mechanical reproduction
Benjin Pollock [Independent researcher]
This paper
raises a simple but awkward question: where is all the shit on screen?
The most banal of human functions is almost entirely absent from the history of
cinema and the moving image. Its erasure is striking, and when it does
appear—whether in Buñuel’s surrealist toilets or Pasolini’s infamous excretions—it produces a radical
rupture. Such moments unsettle not only narrative and form, but also the
function of art in everyday life and the spectator’s embodied relationship to
the world around them.
Drawing on
Walter Benjamin’s account of cinema as a site where collective perception and
consciousness are reshaped and reorganised, I argue
that shit (and its erasure) on screen marks a radical frontier. This paper
explores what is at stake when visual culture is forced to confront human
waste. Through a series of case studies, it demonstrates how the repression and
occasional expression of faeces in film reveals as
much about modernity’s sanitising impulses as its
rare, scandalous appearances reveal about cinema’s capacity to provoke and
unsettle.
By tracing
this double (bowel) movement of absence and presence, the paper shows how
excrement and waste on film compel us to reframe the politics of representation:
not as marginal, but as central—exposing the conditions of production,
reproduction, and denial that underpin screen culture. This is a call to take
shit seriously: not merely as provocation, but as the ground on which cinema’s
most radical possibilities might yet emerge, transforming society’s repressed
relationship to excrement and the body.
CV:
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
Blood
and shit: what public toilets tell us about periods
Lauren Powdrell [SOAS,
Abstract: This paper interrogates the
gendered design and regulation of public toilets in cities, with a focus on how
these spaces have historically shaped – and continue to constrain – the
visibility and management of menstruation. Public toilets, as critical
infrastructures of modern cities, have long reflected social anxieties around
bodily functions, particularly those coded as female. Through an examination of
the evolving presence (and absence) of period bins, the paper traces the
shifting politics of menstrual waste disposal and the persistent discomfort
surrounding menstruation in public life. While public toilet provision expanded
alongside urban development, the accommodation of menstruating bodies has
remained partial, stigmatised, and often obscured.
Focusing
on contemporary practices – such as the often-hidden or inadequate placement of
period bins – and broader social narratives around “blood phobia”, this
presentation explores how public toilets reinforce a spatial and symbolic marginalisation of menstruators.
At the same time, the growing discourse around “blood liberation” and menstrual
equity reflects a pushback against these norms, demanding that menstruation be
made visible and legitimate in public space. By situating menstruation within
the historical and spatial politics of urban toilet provision, this paper
argues for a critical re-imagining of public toilets as inclusive, affirming
spaces that recognise the full range of bodily needs.
CV: Lauren Powdrell
is an LLM postgraduate in International Law at SOAS with a global focus on how
menstruation intersects with human rights frameworks. Drawing on a background
in English Literature and grassroots refugee rights campaigning,
her work examines menstrual justice in contexts of displacement, detention,
humanitarian crisis, and urban marginalisation.
During her time at UN-Habitat, she developed a particular interest in how urban
planning, public infrastructure, and inclusive policy shape access to safe and
dignified menstruation.
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
Bad investments and the enshittification
of Britain
Matt Schneider [
Abstract: “We’re drowning
in shit”, protesters outside Parliament proclaim. For years, bad news about
British waterways and utilities has trickled incessantly: sewage dumps,
swimming alerts, fish die-offs, regulatory fines, credit downgrades, investor writedowns – and yet, continued payouts to company
executives and shareholders. Nothing seems to get better in this “effluent
society,” sentiments channeled in
I turned toward shit during 15 months of
ethnographic research in
Extending Cory Doctorow’s
viral notion of enshittification (originally naming
the worsening-by-design of tech platforms) through a return to insights from
Raymond Williams, this paper advances popular understanding of shitty
situations and reimagines the political obstacles and
opportunities for remediating them. While elaborating
hydro-shitological and legal-financial
technicalities, as well as partisan jockeying, I suggest that the essential
political problematics here are affective investments
in what can and cannot be done and how to feel about those im/possibilities.
From natural byproduct of everyday life (increasingly unsustainable), to compoundingly externalised
pollutant, to vernacular keyword for social incapacitation:
CV: Matt Schneider is a PhD candidate in
Anthropology at the
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
To pee or not to pee: youth navigation of shared
sanitation in Mumbai’s informal settlements
Hoang Tran [
Riddhi Khandhar [
Abstract: This study explores how young
people living in
The research examines how youth manage the prac1cal,
social, and emotional challenges of using these shared sanitation facilities in
their daily lives. Using visual methods alongside in-depth interviews, the
study engaged young people living in urban slums to reflect on their
experiences with communal sanitation. Through the personal narratives that
emerged, participants described how they engage with, avoid, or adapt to shared
toilets in their everyday routines. By positioning the experiences of using
communal toilets in relation to precarity, the study
highlights not only infrastructural and technical concerns, but how it is
deeply related to social structures. This research contributes to
interdisciplinary discussions on youth, urban poverty, and sanitation justice,
offering insights that can inform more inclusive and context-sensitive
sanitation policies and programs in rapidly growing urban areas.
Keywords: youth; urban sanitation; informal
settlements; shared toilets; precarity; visual
methods; public health; urban infrastructure; sanitation justice
CVs:
Hoang Tran is
an MSc Public Health for Development student at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her experience lies in
qualitative research, with a broad focus on community engagement and health
inequality—not only during health crises such as outbreaks, but also in the
everyday realities of public health. Interested in the interconnectedness
between the non-human and human, Hoang is currently conducting an ethnographic
study in
Riddhi Khandhar is a mental health
professional and MSc Public Health for Development
candidate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has led
youth-driven health campaigns, developed trauma-informed psychosocial
interventions, and conducted research on child protection, gender-based
violence, and health promotion in urban and tribal settings. Her current
research examines the mental health impacts of conflict-related sexual violence
in humanitarian contexts. With experience in public health programming and
qualitative research, Riddhi’s interests lie at the
intersection of gender justice and health equity. She brings a field-informed
perspective to participatory, policy-relevant research and practice.
E-mails:
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Ends