New Books in Critical Theory Heather Davis, "Plastic Matter" (Duke UP, 2022)
Nov 23, 2025
Heather Davis, an Assistant Professor of Culture and Media at the New School and author of Plastic Matter, dives into the pervasive influence of plastic in our lives. She discusses the industrial motives behind plastic proliferation and the colonial legacies of pollution. Davis brilliantly connects queerness to ecological thinking and critiques societal narratives around children as symbols of future hope. She exposes how plastics’ paradoxical nature perpetuates harm across generations and highlights the racial injustices tied to plastic production.
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Family Story Behind A Plastic Staple
- Heather Davis recounts her grandfather's work at DuPont and his role in developing the plastic milk bag prototype her grandmother tested at home.
- This family story illustrates how industry design and gendered labor shaped everyday plastic products and their adoption.
Plastic Matter As A Philosophical Condition
- Plastic matter names the recursive relation where humans desire matter to be pliable and thus transform molecular structures to conform to that desire.
- This orientation toward engineered plasticity reshapes broader assumptions about matter and control.
Pollution Wedded To Colonial Logics
- Davis argues plastic pollution functions as a form of colonialism because land availability to pollute depends on settler dispossession and racialized extraction.
- Plastics' presumed universality and disposability amplify settler-territorial logics and environmental injustice.
