Organization Description The Critical Ecology Lab is developing a framework for critical ecology, an emerging area of environmental science that seeks to quantiatively relate historical and contemporary extractive and oppressive social systems and processes to their ecological and biogeochemical corollaries. We employ theory and methods from ecosystems ecology, biogeosciences, archaeology, critical theory, political ecology, and ethnic studies to investigate systems of alienation that propel unsustainable environmental change and human inequality. In tandem with research, we work to change the way that researchers in our discipline talk about and conduct science while critiquing the inherent ways in which traditional academic research continues to support oppressive and extractive societies.
Program Information We are looking for support with the following projects: Air Quality and Health Disparities: Literature review on airborne particulate matter and impacts on respiratory health and health disparities. This will provide important background information on how particulate matter in air harms human health, but may also transport microorganisms. Soil Metals and Plantation Agriculture: Student will review the literature and write a 2-3 page report on the impacts of elevated metals in soil on human health *or* how industrial agriculture contributes to soil metal concentrations *or* chemistry of metals in soils (source, cycling and interactions, fates). This will provide important background information for a research project about how industrial activity on sugar cane plantations and associated enslavement of Africans directly impacted long-term soil health on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. Compost and Greenhouse Gases: Student will review the literature on the production of greenhouse gases relating to the creation and use of human waste compost for agriculture in Haiti. Student will read scientific literature and support the needs of this early-stage research project.