Jessica, thank you for the three visuals you shared in regards to your very exciting field research in Mauritius. The first image of the converted sugar factory pulled me in right away and made me draw connections to my own research and teaching. In collaboration with the Whitney Plantation Museum in Southern Louisiana, I am currently working on a digital exhibit. The exhibit is designed for undergraduate students in the course Environmental Injustice, teaching students about the shift from domestic slave trade to petrochemical economy. Interestingly, the plantation was formerly owned by Formosa Plastics, with the aim to build the largest rayon factory in the United States. Due to activist pushback and shrinking global demand for frayon, Formosa eventually sold the property after 9 years. Having toured the Whitney last summer, I was struck by the image of the glitzy office stands, which stands in such a stark contrast to the violent history of plantation labor. That said, it would be fantastic to hear more about how you incorporate the history of sugar plantations in your own narration of biofuel and sustainability in Mauritius. And what do you make of the historic (?) picture printed on the office wall? How is sugarcane remembered by users of the office?
The political comic on resource extraction you selected is also sobering and visualizing "the point". Do you know more about the artist who drew it? Do you plan to include the visual in your dissertation, if yes why (or why not)?
I am not sure if the orientation of the electric car in your third picture was on purpose, but the world "upside-down" and out of joint seems spot-on, given the oil tanker disaster that is unfolding. I know you mentioned the disaster in your short bio and you must be following it very closely. It would be great to learn more from you how you think the disaster will impact sustainability efforts in Mauritius. I'm still relatively new to research on environmental injustice (and since moving to California, got socialized into learning a lot of US-cases). If not least to do a better job at teaching, this will be an important case that I'd like to understand better. Looking forward to what you'll have to share!
Not directly related to your selected visuals, but very interested to hear about your use of maps and sensory-multimodal methods (I'm also going through rounds of trial and error). What civic data, mapping and activism is currently prevalent in Mauritius? What more is needed?
PS: thanks for review on my Formosa visuals and pointing to Max Liboirons' work -- great inspiration!
