Making and Doing
Morning Open
1:15-5:30pm Making and Doing Session “Narrating Anthropocenes” at 4S
DAY TWO TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3: Petrochemical Labor
On this day we will discover the Anthropocene through different site visits and conversations around petrochemical labor. Industrial production, work, community action, health, and partnership all...Read more
7:30-9:00pm: New Orleans Campus Welcome Session
(informal snacks and drinks)
Location:
Cosimo’s Bar
1201 Burgundy St, New Orleans, LA 70116, USA Read more
This Guardian article by Jamiles Lartey explores the history pervasive racial and environmental inequality in Saint John the Baptist parish, from slavery to the modern day. It Highlights Belle Pointe Plantation, which became a Du Pont refinery.Read more
This essay by Katherine McKittrick explores plantation geographies. In drawing specific attention to the ways past configurations of the plantation are recast in post-slave urban contexts, the discussion signals the links between black dispossession and geography, while also considering...Read more
Because of my work on the Bhopal disaster, I follow worst case scenario potential in many places -- and the...Read more
On the first day of the field campus, we visited the St. Louis Airport Project Site (SLAPS), where we met with project managers from the Army Corps of Engineers, who are currently removing residual waste from the Mallinckrodt Chemical Company’s uranium refining during the 1940s and 1950s in St. Louis. Our discussion at SLAPS centered around the goals and frustrations of the remediation process -- a process which, already over-schedule, will likely continue for several more years.
An image of the fenced-off area and train at SLAPS.
On day one, we visited the Weldon Spring Containment cell in St. Charles, Missouri. At the height of the Cold War’s nuclear arms race in the 1950s, Mallinckrodt relocated uranium production from downtown St. Louis to a new refinery in St. Charles. Following the plant’s closure, the site was converted into a 42-acre containment cell designed to contain 1.5 million cubic yards of radioactive material for 1,000 years. At the Weldon Springs Interpretive Center, we learned from museum guides about their methods for informing the public about the legacy of the uranium industry and nuclear waste in the St. Louis region.
On day one, we visited the Weldon Spring Containment cell in St. Charles, Missouri. At the height of the Cold War’s nuclear arms race in the 1950s, Mallinckrodt relocated uranium production from downtown St. Louis to a new refinery in St. Charles. Following the plant’s closure, the site was converted into a 42-acre containment cell designed to contain 1.5 million cubic yards of radioactive material for 1,000 years. At the Weldon Springs Interpretive Center, we learned from museum guides about their methods for informing the public about the legacy of the uranium industry and nuclear waste in the St. Louis region.
Photo taken at Weldon Spring Interpretive center, St. Louis, MO.
On day one, we visited the Weldon Spring Containment cell in St. Charles, Missouri. At the height of the Cold War’s nuclear arms race in the 1950s, Mallinckrodt relocated uranium production from downtown St. Louis to a new refinery in St. Charles. Following the plant’s closure, the site was converted into a 42-acre containment cell designed to contain 1.5 million cubic yards of radioactive material for 1,000 years. At the Weldon Springs Interpretive Center, we learned from museum guides about their methods for informing the public about the legacy of the uranium industry and nuclear waste in the St. Louis region.
Image of a bird house at Weldon Springs Mound, St. Louis, MO.
We also visited the Weldon Spring Containment cell in St. Charles, Missouri. At the height of the Cold War’s nuclear arms race in the 1950s, Mallinckrodt relocated uranium production from downtown St. Louis to a new refinery in St. Charles. Following the plant’s closure, the site was converted into a 42-acre containment cell designed to contain 1.5 million cubic yards of radioactive material for 1,000 years. At the Weldon Springs Interpretive Center, we learned from museum guides about their methods for informing the public about the legacy of the uranium industry and nuclear waste in the St. Louis region.
During the field campus, we also heard from St. Louis locals about their own methods of documenting, analyzing and describing environmental issues in the region. In a discussion moderated by Tony West, director of The Safe Side of the Fence, we met with Brian Zink, an attorney at Atomic Weapons Employee Consultants; Wendy Verhoff, a historian of radioactive waste in St. Louis; and Denise Brock, the Ombudsman to National Institute for for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
The discussion centered on the legacy of uranium refining in the city, and more than half a million nuclear workers who developed exposure-related illnesses. Much of the talk focused on Denise Brock’s key role in the passage of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). This legislation ensures that compensation and payment of medical expenses are available to workers and their families who developed illnesses due to exposure to radioactive substances at certain nuclear facilities.
Wood River Refinery Museum.
St. Louis West Lake landfill superfund site.
Photo of the Lewis and Clark Park in St Louis, Mo.
Photo of the entrance to the Wood River Refinery Museum in St. Louis, Mo.
A photo of the 'lead garden' created by Chris Carl (GCADD) in Granite City, IL.
Photo of an illustration found in Wood River Refinery Museum in St. Louis, Mo.
Photo of the confluence between Mississppi and Missouri River in St. Louis, MO.
Photo collection at Wood River Museum.
A guide at Wood River Refinery Museum holding up a glass plate.
Image taken at Cahokia Mounds, St. Louis, MO.
This essay from Edge Effects examines the plantation as transformational in the history of organizing life, land and labor. It looks at conversations around racialized violence, land alienation, and species loss as recurrent themes of the "Plantationocene."Read more