This week was less structured than the last– I took the first few days of the week working from home to structure my research question surrounding the air impacts of environmental justice through air monitoring! I am interested in starting my first project, which would be a short (2-minute video) explaining the impact of energy efficient heating and air conditioning systems on the environment. It is also important to outline the effects of these environmental concerns on one’s physical health and wellbeing. I have self-imposed a deadline for this video to be July 14th!
Moreover, in researching the connections between race, the environment, and physical health, I found that I am interested in biological and social environments and their effects on one’s physical or even mental health. Many researchers hypothesize that even slight variations in hormone levels during fetal development or pregnant women exposed to toxins can lead to mental and physical problems in the child. I’m currently not sure how or when I will do more research on this, but I am sure it will require the consult of physicians biologists, and potentially some laboratory work of my own.
Thursday-Sunday was dedicated to conferences– specifically the Allied Media Conferences (AMC) in Detroit (Wayne State and Midtown area). Each day, I listened to tracks and plenaries from 9am to 4pm about various social justice organizations using their art to make a difference; this largely inspired the video project I am now pursuing about air quality! At night, the Conference put on social events to engage the community with their efforts (which I have a hard times calling work!).
With the inspiration from the Conferences in mind, and with a research project at hand, I and focused and ready to produce some quality results for the summer.
