S**t Matters: Book Launch and Declaration of World S**t Day

This event marks the publication of a book containing articles arising out of the conference M**de Alors! An interdisciplinary conference on excrement, past, present and future, held at SOAS, University of London, on 21–22 October 2023.

After discussion among the conference participants a decision has been taken to establish a World S**t Day, to be celebrated each year on 18 November. This comes one day before the United Nations’ well-established World Toilet Day. The purpose of World S**t Day is first to name the unnamable and bring it into the light of day as a suitable subject for academic discourse; and second to open up the whole range of problems and possibilities that arise around excremental questions in our time.

Our event will mark the formal launching of that Day, and our speakers will explain why these are matters of global importance that should concern us all.

Our book is also available in an on-line version. The articles (free downloads) can be found at the following address: www.geocities.ws/soasshitreader

This event is jointly hosted by the Food Studies Centre at SOAS (FSC) and The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) at UCL.

Chair: Jakob Klein, Deputy Chair, Food Studies Centre (FSC), SOAS

To be added to the guest list for this event, please send an e-mail to the following address, with the header “Book Launch”. All requests will be acknowledged. ed.emery@soas.ac.uk