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Luísa Reis-Castro: mosquitoes, race, and class

LuisaReisCastro

As a researcher, I’m interested in the political, ecological, and cultural debates around mosquito-borne diseases and the solutions proposed to mitigate them.

When we received the task, my first impulse was to investigate about the contemporary effects of anthropogenic climate change in mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans. But I was afraid to make the same mistake that I did in my PhD research. I wrote my PhD proposal while based in the US, more specifically in New England, during the Zika epidemic, and proposed to understand how scientists were studying ecological climate change and mosquitoes in Brazil. However, once I arrived in the country the political climate was a much more pressing issue, with the dismantling of health and scientific institutions.

Thus, after our meeting yesterday, and Jason Ludwig’s reminder that the theme of our Field Campus is the plantation, I decided to focus on how it related to mosquitoes in New Orleans.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito and the yellow fever virus it can transmit are imbricated in the violent histories of settler-colonialism and slavery that define the plantation economy. The mosquito and the virus arrived in the Americas in the same ships that brought enslaved peoples from Africa. The city of New Orleans had its first yellow fever epidemic in 1796, with frequent epidemics happening between 1817 and 1905. What caused New Orleans to be the “City of the Dead,” as Kristin Gupta has indicated, was yellow fever. However, as historian Urmi Engineer Willoughby points out, the slave trade cannot explain alone the spread and persistance of the disease in the region: "Alterations to the landscape, combined with demographic changes resulting from the rise of sugar production, slavery, and urban growth all contributed to the region’s development as a yellow fever zone." For example, sugar cultivation created ideal conditions for mosquito proliferation because of the extensive landscape alteration and ecological instabilities, including heavy deforestation and the construction of drainage ditches and canals.

Historian Kathryn Olivarius examines how for whites "acclimatization" to the disease played a role in hierarchies with “acclimated” (immune) people at the top and a great mass of “unacclimated” (non-immune) people and how for black enslaved people "who were embodied capital, immunity enhanced the value and safety of that capital for their white owners, strengthening the set of racialized assumptions about the black body bolstering racial slavery."

As I continue to think through these topics, I wonder how both the historical materialities of the plantation and the contemporary anthropogenic changes might be influencing mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans nowadays? And more, how the regions’ histories of race and class might still be shaping the effects of these diseases and how debates about them are framed?

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Sara_Nesheiwat

The bibliography of this article is quite extensive and thorough. This shows that a lot of research and effort was put into this article. The sources cited are all from very reputable labs, organizations, and researchers. This reflects the validity and expertise in this article. 

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xiaox

The app cannot be development. The app’s concept miss the most important part that consider the human emotion and reaction in the actual situation. The point for offering evidence on court is okay, but the way that open an app and recording after a rape is pretty bad. This app is created only for a shallow idea, but not consider all the elements for the app to help victim of sexual assault. It is awful app, and the most suitable way is correct positive value, respect and old-fashion empathy.

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Sara_Nesheiwat

The author is Scott Gabriel Knowles and he works in the department of History and Politics at Drexel University. He focuses on disaster risks in cities, modern areas and public policy. He got his BA and MA in history at the University of Texas. He also got his PhD at John Hopkins University. He has written a book,  "The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America" (UPenn Press, 2011) as well as edited  "Critical Studies in Risk and Disaster" (UPenn Press, launch 2014).  He also is a member of Fukushima Forum collaborative research community and is currently co-writing a volume on the Fukushima disasters.

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xiaox

Indian Point Energy Centre is a new power plants station in Buchanan. As well as the communities around it are without any emergency respond plants to nuclear disaster. NRC is  Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is an organisation for the safety of nuclear power production and civilians uses for nuclear materials. In addtion, there are some representors of different communities. For example, Ben Smilowitz who is executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project, and Dutchess County’s commissioner of emergency response,Dana Smith. Some actors' words are quotated to show the main point of the article and support the author research. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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There are many websites and papers that cite this website due to the extensive amounts of data that are collected from this site. The website provides a lot of information and data based off health afflictions as a result of 9/11. Since this registry is the largest of its kind, data from it is pulled for numerous studies on 9/11 and its health effects. 

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xiaox
Annotation of

This concept design is create a market which is within more functions and technologies for guardrail. In the existing market, there are some good design highway guardrail, such as EZY-guard smart guardrail. Most of the existing product are applied outter shapes and physical structures rather than some electrical technology. Compare to the existing products, this concept design is more challenged by the cost. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
Annotation of

Rikers Island: The subject of this article, it's NYC's main jail complex. It is under scrutiny for poor living conditions of inmates.

Hailey-Means: Interviewed for this article, she was incarcerated in 2015 provides insight into the horribly smelly and toxic conditions she experienced. She is quoted and cited nearly 20 times about solitary and other aspects of the jail.

The New York Times: They were mentioned in the article as having published and spoken out against the violence and human rights issues at Rikers.  

Preet Bharara: US attorney for Southern District of NY who, as of 2014 planned to sue the city for abuse of inmates on the island.

Michael Bloomberg: His run as Mayor was cited when he announced the city's evacuation plan, which did not include a plan or route for Rikers island at all. 

Johnny Perez: A past detainee of Rikers who revealed the extreme temperatures that are reached inside cells and the jail itself. He is now workign to reduce the population and close the jail. He is also now part of the Urban Justice Center.

Susi Vassallo: Conducted temperature monitoring on Rikers Island. She is a professor at NYU med. She determined that the temperature extremes were a seriously health threat and unsafe. 

New York City Panel on Climate Change: Is cited in the article in order to show the extremes that temperature are expected to get by 2080, proving to be a complication for Rikers and it's inmates.  


Carvett Gentles: Another inmate who discusses the oven feeling of his cell and how he has fainted before due to it.

Omar Smith: Was incarcerated in 2014, he has had severe asthma that developed while at Rikers, coughing up blood is something that isn't new to him due to pollution in the area it is speculated. 

Bill de Blasio: Mayor of NYC, he is calling for reform of the jail and has allocated 200 million for upgrades and renovations for Rikers. 

Department of Corrections: Responsible for care and detention of inmates in NY state. In this article they acknowledge the need for improvements in the jail.

Freddie McGrier: Another inmate that was interviewed and confirmed atrociously hot temperatures inside the jail. He states his heart is affected as well as his migraines because of the heat.