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Thermal inequity in Richmond, VA: The effect of an unjust evolution of the urban landscape on urban heat islands
No full textThe urban heat island (UHI) effect is caused by intensive development practices in cities and the diminished presence of green space that results. The evolution of these phenomena has occurred over many decades. In many cities, historic zoning and redlining practices barred Black and minority groups from moving into predominately white areas and obtaining financial resources, a practice that still affects cities today, and has forced these already disadvantaged groups to live in some of the hottest areas. In this study, we used a new dataset on the spatial distribution of temperature during a heat wave in Richmond, Virginia to investigate potential associations between extreme heat and current and historical demographic, socioeconomic, and land use factors. We assessed these data at the census block level to determine if blocks with large differences in temperature also had significant variation in these covariates. The amount of canopy cover, percent impervious surface, and poverty level were all shown to be strong correlates of UHI when analyzed in conjunction with afternoon temperatures. We also found strong associations of historical policies and planning decisions with temperature using data from the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab’s “Mapping Inequality” project. Finally, the Church Hill area of the city provided an interesting case study due to recent data suggesting the area’s gentrification. Differences in demographics, socioeconomic factors, and UHI were observed between north and (more gentrified) south Church Hill. Both in Church Hill and in Richmond overall, our research found that areas occupied by people of low socioeconomic status or minority groups disproportionately experienced extreme heat and corresponding impacts on health and quality of life
Narradora para comer: la comida en la ficción de Aurora Venturini
No full textLas múltiples referencias a la comida constituyen en las ficciones de Venturini un menú de instancias discursivas en las que los sentidos oscilan entre la fijación y el desplazamiento, adquiriendo un carácter de transformación. En las cocinas, las mesas, la comensalidad y la materialidad de la ingesta se re-inscribe sobre el cuerpo de los personajes un repertorio siniestro de vínculos donde lo gastronómico funciona como significante englobador de la violencia sexual, institucional y de género. Cuentos secretos (2015) constituye un ensamblaje de las distintas aristas que componen la obra total de Venturini. En este ensayo abordamos el relato “Espécimen” que hace particularmente visible la importancia simbólica de la comida y la comensalidad, aspectos presentes en toda su narrativa, que funcionan como “tegumento” afectivo de las subjetividades, a nivel individual, colectivo, institucional y social. Aquí analizamos cómo la descripción de las comidas, la obtención de los alimentos y su ingesta se articulan sensorialmente como un dispositivo narrativo que deconstruye los mandatos culturales que rigen los cuerpos.
References to food, abundant in Venturini’s fictions, constitute discursive instances in which meanings move back and forth, from fixed to nomadic positions, acquiring a transformational trait. In the kitchen, at the table, through commensality and the materiality of the act of eating, a sinister repertoire of relationships gets re-inscribed in the characters’ bodies: food functions as an encompassing signifier for sexual, institutional, and gender violence. The collection Cuentos secretos (2015) links together a diversity of aspects at the core of Venturini’s total work. In this essay, we examine how the short story “Espécimen” makes especially visible the symbolic importance of food and commensality, elements present across Venturini’s narrative, and which serve as an affective “integument” of subjectivities, at the individual, collective, institutional, and social levels. Here we analyze how the description of food, the way in which food is obtained, and the manner in which it is ingested sensorially articulate a narrative device which helps deconstruct the cultural mandates regulating the bodies
Mental Health and Fieldwork
No full textResearchers discuss the logistics of successful fieldwork but not the mental health considerations that fieldwork and the research process introduce. Successful fieldwork and fruitful academic careers hinge on acknowledging and managing our mental health. We discuss peer-support networks, secondary trauma, coping skills, therapy, and researchers’ mental health options before, during, and after fieldwork
No Evidence for Enzootic Plague within Black-Tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys Ludovicianus) Populations.
No full textYersinia pestis, causative agent of plague, occurs throughout the western United States in rodent populations and periodically causes epizootics in susceptible species, including black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). How Y. pestis persists long-term in the environment between these epizootics is poorly understood but multiple mechanisms have been proposed, including, among others, a separate enzootic transmission cycle that maintains Y. pestis without involvement of epizootic hosts and persistence of Y. pestiswithin epizootic host populations without causing high mortality within those populations. We live-trapped and collected fleas from black-tailed prairie dogs and other mammal species from sites with and without black-tailed prairie dogs in 2004 and 2005 and tested all fleas for presence of Y. pestis. Y. pestis was not detected in 2126 fleas collected in 2004 but was detected in 294 fleas collected from multiple sites in 2005, before and during a widespread epizootic that drastically reduced black-tailed prairie dog populations in the affected colonies. Temporal and spatial patterns of Y. pestisoccurrence in fleas and genotyping of Y. pestis present in some infected fleas suggest Y. pestis was introduced multiple times from sources outside the study area and once introduced, was dispersed between several sites. We conclude Y. pestis likely was not present in these black-tailed prairie dog colonies prior to epizootic activity in these colonies. Although we did not identify likely enzootic hosts, we found evidence that deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) may serve as bridging hosts for Y. pestis between unknown enzootic hosts and black-tailed prairie dogs