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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?

The presented artifact talks about the pollution management in the Passaic River. The water body has been contaminated from previous manufacaturing companies that would dump toxic material into the river. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "two cleanups of the river have been completed." However, the plan on a third cleanup was created in March of 2016. The state is looking into getting residents back to the river through park creation, education and cultural events which I find great, but a concern of mine is what if the water isn't safe enough? These things have to be taken into consideration because human lives are at stake. 

I uploaded this article because I believe it’s imporatant that groups are coming together to fight the pollution that the port contributes to. I have hopes that the port will one day be modernized and changed so that its footprint is reduced, because Newark could use some upgrading.

I uploaded this artifact because I believe that reparing Newark’s infrastructure is very important, especially since a lot of it’s economy relies on it. Without the repairs, it would lead to bigger problems such as increasing the cost of maintenance for its residents and the companies that use it daily. This decision made me realize that although Newark is struggling in bringing its economy back, its politicians know that maintaining it’s road is the foundation towards recovering from the recession.

This article presents how Newark is taking precautionary measures to help people affected by incoming Hurricane Sandy.  The city of Newark opened JFK Center as a shelter with the help of the Amercian Red Cross. The city also advised business and home owners how to prepare for the storm to avoid minimal damage to their properties. This display of precaution demonstrates how Newark is resilient to incoming storms during hurricane seasons.

This article brings Newark’s water contamination problem up, specifically the amount of lead found in recent studies. Newark’s water was found to have three times the amount of acceptable lead in its tap water, but no specific locations were give as to what places are being affected by this contamination. Newarks Water Department will be required to take actions such as testing public school water supplies, changing lead pipe lines, and maintaining more accurate maintainence schedules and records. By holding people accountable, Newark is changing its vulnerability towards water contamination