Narrowing It Down

As I continue writing my proposal I need to think less abstractly about my posters. I have begun to narrow down my topic. I think it is okay to begin abstractly but that can't be for the entirety of the project. I was recently going through my bookshelf and reorganizing and I came across my two old books from Environmental Justice (ENVIRON 222) that I took last year at the beginning of Sophomore Year. For some reason when approaching this class after learning our posters would be about the environment I did want to make the connection to my environmental justice class, as I have created work centered around it before and felt it was important to move on to a different topic. But after listening to my peers' discussions about their topics and how they are approaching this project, I have actually changed my mind (which is ok) and think connecting these posters to all that I learned in environmental justice would be really amazing and be the perfect way to tie all of these environmental issues together. That class was a really transformative academic experience during my time thus far the UMich. That class was a pivotal moment in how I viewed my previous education and how sheltered and one-sided it was. It opened my eyes to not only a lot of the inequities in our society, but how every aspect of the environment comes into play within them. For example, housing. Everything I learned in that class unveiled how every single thing we interact with today has been deliberately built to purposely exclude and simultaneously benefit the privileged. The class was taught by the amazing Dr. Dorceta Taylor who wrote the two books I reference above. I decided to keep them because I knew I would want to reference them in the future (and they were amazing reads) and here we are! I had written a few research papers in that class based on the topics and material from her books and class lectures that I think will be perfect supplemental materials for my research on these posters. Below are the directions I think I will go for each avenue of pollution. I wouldn't call this necessarily a pivot but I have not decided how I want to visually represent these topics, nor what would benefit the storytelling in the best way. My main concern in going in this direction is that as much knowledge as I can have about these topics, I have not personally experienced them. I have experienced pollution but not through the lens of environmental justice. So in the execution of these posters, I NEED to make sure that storytelling comes through accurately and appropriately. I am not exactly sure how to do this and I think it is definitely easier said than done but I am assuming it will take many iterations. Stay tuned! 

Topics:

Water- access to safe drinking water
- India's relationship to water pollution (also currently researching this for my Global Studio course), Flint (From Flint- assigned by Franc), and Troubled Water (assigned by Franc) 

Air- pollution from corporate factories/plants through emissions
-ENVIRON 222 Notes, Company Town (assigned by Franc)

Fire- Poisoned Fire (assigned by Franc about the Niger Delta) but need to do some additional research as well in this field

Land- soil degradation and how it relates to food security
-ENVIRON 222 Notes & additional research
-Also did research paper on 1/2 of this topic

Plastics- need to do more research into this 

6th topic- Animal Agriculture- methane gas emissions and water waste
-reference book read recently: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (my favorite author of all time lol)
-large factory farms are also strategically placed in vulnerable communities (reference research paper from ENVIRON 222- cattle farms in Southern California)

*all books/movies referenced I have either already watched or read

Looking forward to continuing my research!!!!!