Energy Afterlives

About

This Scalar book features the work of students in Professors Selby Hearth's and José Vergara's courses from the summer 2022 iteration of the STEM in the Liberal Arts Fellows Program at Bryn Mawr College and provides resources related to coal, oil, and nuclear energy. 

THE PROJECT
As part of our efforts to understand humanity’s relationships with coal, oil, and nuclear energy sources, students in these two courses have collectively built this Scalar book. From the STML 112 course, students have contributed a selection of geologic objects they have worked with, data analyses they have conducted, samples they have taken from field sites, and conceptual diagrams. Their goal with these contributions is to synthesize their work on the geology of coal, oil, and nuclear energy and to connect it with their writings from STML 113. These reports from STML 113 describe and analyze works regarding the three energy sources that did not appear on our syllabus. They explore a wide range of materials and the intersections between humanity, nature, and energy.





THE COURSES

STML 112 examines the geology of coal, oil, and nuclear energy. Through readings, specimen analyses, field sampling, and lab work, students assess the geologic conditions under which these materials form and the long-term environmental consequences of their extraction.

In STML 113, we considered how these three energy sources give shape to our lives in countless ways by exploring their place in literature, music, and art. This approach allowed us to examine the personal, human elements of energy and extraction.



CONTRIBUTORS--- 

Site supported by the Digital Scholarship Program at Bryn Mawr College
Special thanks to Bronwen Densmore for tons of Makerspace help, Rich Willard and Rob Cunningham for fixing our display case when it broke, Pedro Marenco for training us in ICPMS analysis, Don Barber for inspiring the Winogradsky column and training us on the freeze dryer, Katherine Marenco for lending us the sand squeeze box, Tom Mozdzer for letting us use his ball mill, Leila N'Diaye for field assistance, and Alice McGrath for Scalar training and conceptualizing.

This page references: