2 Activity 1.2 – Exploring Intersections: Home and Toxic Heritage

Audrey Ricke

Photograph of a creek with the bank in the foreground and on the far side of the creek is a wooded embankment with wooden stairs leading down to a sewar discharge outfall emptying into the creek.
Fall Creek, Indianapolis, with a view of a Combined Sewer Outfall on the far bank.

Associated Readings:

Visual Essay 1, Mike Hannis and Sian Sullivan, “Extraction Old and New: Toxic Legacies of Mining the Desert in Southwestern Africa.”

Chapter 2 Jonathan Gardner, “Of blaes and bings: the (non)toxic heritage of the West Lothian oil shale industry”

Targeted Skills:

Analysis, Digital Literacy, Library Research, Archival Research, Field Research-Interviewing, and Reflection

Suggested format:

Consider structuring the activity as an individual semester-long project in an upper-division undergraduate or a graduate-level course. Set due dates for different deliverables or steps in the analysis.

Directions:

Think about and note what signals home to you from the surrounding environment, that is what smells, tastes, temperatures, visuals, multisensory landscapes, etc. Try to capture and explain the multidimensional sensory experience (you could do this through writing, video or auditory montage). Then do some research on this landscape: are any of these sensory experiences associated with toxic heritage? Where possible, visit with elders, people of different generations, local business owners to find out about the history; contact local public and university libraries and ask for any archival research about the landscape or other entity that is a main source of your senses of home. Not sure where to get started on your local toxic heritage research? See the appendix for a sample list.

Analysis:

  • How is toxic heritage defined in your community or what impressions do people have?
  • What components surrounding your sense of home are linked to toxic heritage?
  • Are any groups affected more than others? If so, how?

Reflection:

  • What would it mean on your sense of home as it relates to the physical sensescapes if it was discovered to be connected to toxic heritage? Or, if you know your home is impacted by its toxic history, how does that shape your sense of home?
  • In what ways, if any, would your sense of home be impacted if this toxic heritage was changed/treated? How might your sense of home change? How would such a change impact you?

License

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Teaching Toxic Heritage Copyright © by Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, Audrey Ricke, Laura Holzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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