{"id":2041,"date":"2013-10-30T16:08:47","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T20:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=2041"},"modified":"2025-12-10T10:43:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T15:43:57","slug":"observations-of-the-invisible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2013\/10\/30\/observations-of-the-invisible\/","title":{"rendered":"Observations of the Invisible"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Robin Nagle writes that her research \u201cunfolds along the curbs, edges, and purposely forgotten quarters\u201d of society.<\/p>\n

Nagle, nicknamed Dr. Garbage, is a clinical associate professor of anthropology and urban studies at New York University and the anthropologist-in-residence at the Department of Sanitation in New York City.<\/p>\n

You see, she studies the Big Apple\u2019s garbage collectors, perhaps the most overlooked and underappreciated sectors of organized society.\u00a0 A city can\u2019t run efficiently without the proper removal of its refuse.\u00a0 And most of us don\u2019t take note until our own trash piles up along the curb.<\/p>\n

Nagle presented her lecture, “Labors of Waste and the Value of Knowledge,” to Baxter Hall Monday, hoping to shed some light on the humanity that accomplishes the feat with nary a pat on the back.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Robin Nagle (right), after presenting her lecture “Labors of Waste and the Value of Knowledge,” on Oct. 29, 2013, in Baxter Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She presents compelling research in a conversational tone that brings some of the san men to life.\u00a0 In order to tell that story more completely, Nagle passed the necessary tests and became an NYC Department of Sanitation employee, embedding herself in unit and earning the trust of the lifers within.<\/p>\n

The invisibility afforded to garbage collectors isn\u2019t unlike that of most support staff members of any institution, who toil for recognition every now and again, but are absolutely responsible for keeping the organization humming along smoothly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, it (the invisibility) made me mad, but then I also realized it was a tremendous privilege,\u201d Nagle said. \u201cIf you are three feet from me and you are completely ignoring me, then I can watch you unfiltered.\u00a0 I can just watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe street becomes a kind of theater and you are the inadvertent audience,\u201d she continued.\u00a0 \u201cA lot of sanitation workers feel that way, like \u2018I\u2019m fine being invisible,\u2019 because there is a perk to that.\u00a0 You are the fly on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bonus to an anthropologist \u2013 trained or amateur \u2013 to get such unfiltered access.\u00a0 In other words, to know what it\u2019s like behind the scenes.\u00a0 Few understand the rhythms of an institution like those who pick up after it.<\/p>\n

So how do the essential and the invisible find a balance?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a big question about how we as a culture value or ignore certain aspects of life,\u201d said Nagle.\u00a0 \u201cThe whole issue of maintenance generally is one of those.\u00a0 Think about the maintenance staff of this place.\u00a0 Who knows their names or thanks them?\u00a0 Some do, but most don\u2019t, and that\u2019s just a cultural habit.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the last of nearly 50 in attendance to leave Baxter Hall, I noticed that there were some empty pizza boxes left on the floor for someone else to pick up.<\/p>\n

I suppose some habits are hard to break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Dr. Robin Nagle writes that her research \u201cunfolds along the curbs, edges, and purposely forgotten quarters\u201d of society. Nagle, nicknamed Dr. Garbage, is a clinical associate professor of anthropology and urban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Nagle_6424_crop.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3796,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions\/3796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}