I help institutions think and act across decades, centuries, and deep futures. My speaking work draws on policy experience, ethnographic insight, and systems thinking to translate complex long-term challenges - energy, risk, and environmental governance - into frameworks for durable decision-making. I work with leaders in government, academia, and civil society navigating uncertainty at planetary scales.
Inquiries regarding invited talks, keynotes, or advisory engagements may be directed to ialenti@humboldt.edu
Selected Invited Keynotes, Lectures, and Policy Briefings
- A full list of lectures, panels, and conference presentations is available upon request -
2025. “Ghost Protocols: Nuclear Waste Governance, Longstorming, and the Bureaucratic Sublime.” Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, November 13.
2025. “From the Bedrock to the Body Politic: Building Geocultural Foundations for Spent Nuclear Fuel Progress.” 2025 Jack Gallagher Visiting Scientist Lecture, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manitoba, Canada, October 28.
2025. “Governing the Unseen: A Fireside Chat with Vincent Ialenti on U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Futures.” Center for Energy Ethics, University of Saint Andrews, Scotland, October 9.
2025. “The Geocultural License to Operate: Nuclear Decarbonization, Finnish Technoculture, and Prospects for a Single-Purpose U.S. Nuclear Waste Management Entity.” Climate Legislation Symposium, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, California, August 12.
2025. “The Art of Temporal Endurance.” Invited Curriculum Lecturer, California Conservation Corps, Backcountry Trails Program, Marble Mountains, California, August 5.
2025. “Longstorming: Spent Nuclear Fuel, Deep Time Analogs, and Planetary Visioning.” Harper Academy for Future Nuclear Engineers, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 23.
2025. “Nuclear In My Backyard? The Importance of Consent-Based Siting.” NAYGN Continental Congress, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Denver, Colorado, June 23.
2025. “Ghost Protocols: Nuclear Waste, Wreckage Clocks, and The Bureaucratic Sublime.” Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, February 17.
2025. “DOE’s Consent-Based Siting Consortia: A Progress Update.” Spent Fuel & High-Level Waste Disposition DOE NE-8 Seminar Series hosted by Sandia National Laboratories, February 3.
2024. “The Consent-Based Siting Consortia: Engagement Progress & Feedback Implementation.” Fact Finding Meeting on Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste Disposition, U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, Washington DC, December 16.
2024. “Consent-Based Siting Consortia Progress Update.” You Ask, DOE Answers: What’s Next for the Federal Consolidated Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel? Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, November 20.
2024. “The U.S. Department of Energy’s Progress with Consent-Based Siting.” Spent Nuclear Fuel: Dangerous Waste or Wondrous Resource? Virginia Tech Research Center, Arlington, Virginia, September 11.
2024. “Amplify & Elevate: Expanding the National Conversation on Spent Nuclear Fuel.” Opening remarks. National webinar hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, August 29.
2024. “The U.S. Department of Energy’s Progress with Consent-Based Siting.” Arizona State University, Public Forum Design Workshop, Flagstaff, Arizona, August 14.
2024. “Successes in Siting: A DOE Public Roundtable.” Welcome remarks and roundtable moderation. Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, May 22.
2024. “Progress with Consent-Based Siting: Community Engagement, Federal Consolidated Interim Storage, and Humboldt Bay Spent Nuclear Fuel Management.” Humboldt Bay Symposium, Eureka, California, April 12.
2024. “Sharing Perspectives: A Consent-Based Siting Listening Session.” Welcome remarks and listening session moderation. Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, February 15.
2023. “The Consent-Based Siting Consortia: A Virtual Open House.” Interactive webinar hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. Broadcast from Doubletree Cleveland Downtown, Cleveland, Ohio, November 2.
2023. “The Role of Social Science in Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation and Facility Siting Processes” and “Consent-Based Siting Process & Consortia Awardees: Next Steps.” U.S. DOE Transportation Core Group convening with State government representatives. Treasure Island Resort & Casino, Prairie Island, Minnesota, September 6.
2023. “DOE’s Consent-Based Siting Consortia: Kickoff.” Interactive webinar hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. Broadcast from Hilton Washington DC National Mall The Wharf, Washington DC, July 25.
2023. “Future Forum: Deep Time Paradigm.” Melbourne Museum. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, May 3.
2023. “Siting Clean Energy & Spent Nuclear Fuel Facilities: Rural Opportunities & Impacts.” North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, April 25.
2022. “Consent-Based Siting: Social Science & Nuclear Waste Management at the U.S. Department of Energy.” American Anthropological Association, AnthropologyLive Webinar Series, December 1.
2022. “Nuclear Anthropologies.” Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, May 31.
2022. “Blue Planet,” with Sequoia Nagamatsu & Angela Hume. Unbound Book Festival, Columbia, Missouri, April 23.
2022. “Deep Time Reckoning.” Extractivism & Transition Research Online Dialogues, Centre for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany, February 24.
2021. “Deep Time Dreamers: Expanding our Time Horizons.” Reclaiming the Future Series, Royal Society For the Arts, Oceania Center, Australia, December 2.
2021. “Drum Breach: Typo Politics, Wildfire Futures, and WIPP’s Kitty Litter Nuclear Waste Accident.” Department of Anthropology and Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life (joint event), University of Southern California, December 1.
2021. “Deep Time Decision: An Anthropology of Finland's Nuclear Waste Repository Licensing Ritual.” Participation in Long-Term Decision-Making Consortium, Finnish Strategic Research Council, Finland, November 18.
2021. “Deep Time Reckoning.” Keynote Address, Digital Cultural Heritage Conference, National Library of Finland & Finnish Ministry of Culture, Helsinki, October 26.
2021. “Deep Time Reckoning: A Sense of Urgency.” ASLE Ecocriticism Spotlight Series, Program in Environmental Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, May 14.
2021. “Deep Time Reckoning: Infinition & Futurity Among Finland's Nuclear Waste Experts.” Invited Lecture, Finnish Anthropological Society, April 22.
2021. “Deep Time Reckoning.” Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech. Blacksburg, Virginia, March 19.
2020. “Deep Time Reckoning.” School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada, November 16.
2020. “Drum Breach: Error Politics, Operational Temporalities, and WIPP’s Kitty Litter Nuclear Waste Accident.” Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada, October 8.
2020. “Deep Time Reckoning.” Elliott School Book Launch Series, George Washington University. Washington DC, October 14.
2019. “Deep Time Reckoning: Nuclear Waste, Expert Afterlives, and Public Anthropology.” School of Science, Technology, and Policy, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST). Daejeon, South Korea, December 6.
2019. “Nuclear Waste Communication: Anthropology, Analogy, and Storytelling.” Banquet keynote address at The Canadian Nuclear Society’s 4th Nuclear Waste Management, Decommissioning & Environmental Restoration Conference. Hotel Marriott, Ottawa, Ontario, September 10.
2019. “Command & Control: Nuclear Weapons Accidents & National Security Culture” (6/10) & “Containment: Nuclear Waste, Kitty Litter, Deep Time” (6/18). The Nuclear Science & Security Consortium’s 2019 Policy Boot Camp, George Washington University, Washington DC, June 9-21.
2019. “Contractors, Culpability, and Credibility after the 2014 LANL-WIPP Kitty Litter Accident.” Borehole to Blockchain: Evolving Technologies & Geological Disposal, The Stimson Center, Washington DC, May 29-30.
2018. “Waste Makes Haste: An Anthropologist’s View of the 2014 LANL-WIPP Organic Kitty Litter Accident.” Los Alamos Historical Society Lecture Series, Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos, New Mexico, November 13.
2018. “Communicating Nuclear Waste Anthropologically: Storytelling & Analogical Reasoning.” Back-End to the Future: The Safeguards, Security, and Society of Deep Geological Repositories, Institute for Nuclear Materials Management & The Stimson Center, Washington DC, June 15.
2018. “Specters of Seppo: The Afterlives of Nuclear Waste Expertise in Finland,” Nuclear Engineering & Nonproliferation Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, February 8.
2018. “Specters of Seppo: The Afterlives of Nuclear Waste Expertise in Finland.” Center for Global Security Cooperation, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 7.
2018. “Specters of Seppo: The Afterlives of Nuclear Waste Expertise in Finland.” Los Alamos Committee on Arms Control and International Security, Los Alamos, New Mexico, February 1.
2017. “Picturing Deep Time.” State University of New York at Oswego. Oswego, NY, March 27.
2016. “Specters of Seppo: The Afterlives of Nuclear Waste Expertise in Finland.” Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, December 2.
2016. “Models, Forests, and Nazca Lines: Forming Self-Similar Nuclear Waste Futures in Finland.” Science Studies Research Group, Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, September 26.
2016. “Deep Time & The Afterlives of Nuclear Waste Expertise in Finland.” Symposium: Thinking Time, A.D. White House, Cornell Society for the Humanities, Ithaca, New York, April 8.
2014. “Viewing Deep Time Analogically: An Ethnographic Look at Finland’s Nuclear Waste Futures.” Finland’s National Consumer Research Centre, Helsinki, April 28.
2012. “Anthropology & Onkalo: Toward an Ethnography of Finland’s Nuclear Waste.” Presentation for Posiva Oy Management Group, Olkiluoto, Finland, February 21.