Associate Professor of Design and American Studies Javier Arbona-Homar has a new book, Explosivity: Following What Remains, which closely studies violent episodes — many of which are actual explosions — that occurred in the Bay Area from 1866 to 2011. Framed within landscape studies and urban geography, Arbona-Homar proposes a novel approach for how such episodes should be treated in the public’s memory.

Recently published by the University of Minnesota Press, the book features present-day photographs by Andrea Gaffney, taken to help Arbona-Homar illustrate how these explosive episodes have shaped the modern Bay Area landscape. One such incident was the 1866 nitroglycerin explosion in the Wells Fargo building downtown San Francisco, which killed 14 people and leveled several buildings and became part of a national discourse on how to better ship explosive materials — and who bore responsibility for doing so. Another, the Mythbusters “cannonball” incident in 2011, which prompted questions of safety and whether the show should be doing such experiments.

In August 2025, on a date to be announced, Arbona-Homar will speak about Explosivity and other topics at Bathers Library in Oakland.