About the talk:
Amber is an ambiguous material that holds a wide range of meanings across science, jewellery-making, traditional medicine, folklore, and other areas of human life. This ambiguity presents a considerable challenge to the legal regulation of amber extraction and trade.
In this seminar, Paul Stewens will present initial findings from his research into amber-related legislation in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Russia. He will explore how legal frameworks reflect and respond to the materiality and diverse cultural meanings of amber.
This research forms part of his PhD project on the legal classification of natural history specimens.
The seminar will take place in ES-B Meeting Room 850 and will also be available online via Zoom.