Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Hypatia Vourloumis

Thesis: Undercurrents: The Politics of the Flood

July 2025

Abstract

Undercurrents: The Politics of the Flood investigates the historical and ecological transformations of the Emilia-Romagna region through a materialist and situated lens. Anchored in personal memory and collective struggle, the thesis traces the shift from a rural to an industrial landscape, focusing on the ENI petrochemical complex in Ravenna and its entanglement with labor, toxicity, and environmental exploitation. Drawing from oral histories, archival research, and artistic practices, it explores the politics of water—its extraction, containment, and resistance—as a central thread connecting hydrological infrastructures, class dynamics, and climate crisis, such as the recent floods in Emilia Romagna in 2023 and 2024. The thesis weaves together hydrofeminism, historical materialism, and decolonial methodologies to explore the dialectic between extractive and submersive processes, offering a critique and envisioning the transformative, anticipatory potential of hydro-ecosystems within capitalism’s machinery. Undercurrents approaches the flood not as catastrophe but as insurgency, a disruptive force that unveils submerged relations of power and opens space for collective reimagining and resistance.

Author: Sara Alberani