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Recap: Baraza with Rebecca Hardin

Dr. Rebecca Hardin from the University of Michigan presented “Elemental Design, Environmental Health and Sustainable Technology at Gabon’s Schweitzer Hospital,” at the most recent Baraza on Friday October 27.  Her research concerns human/wildlife interactions, social and environmental change, wildlife management, tourism, logging, and mining especially in Central African Republic and the western Congo basin. She is a frequent contributor to Cultural Anthropology; Science; World Development PerspectivesEnvironmental Research LettersEcohealth; Conservation Biology; FOCAAL (the Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology); Environmental Health Perspectives; American Anthropologist; and Anthropologie et Sociétés.

This Baraza addressed some of her new work, which questions what to do with the Albert Schweitzer mission hospital in Gabon—an old colonial hospital with a complex history in the region. How can this heritage object be considered through the eyes and ethics of sustainable development? And what should happen to his legacy? Prior to being a hospital, the land was used as a logging concession, but Schweitzer was able to acquire the land title by protecting a political leader from an attempted assassination. The hospital is well known for its low-tech environment and self-sufficiency for water, food, and some energy. Dr. Hardin is now working with partners in Gabon to establish spaces for innovation, teaching, and design. Through collaborations with educators and researchers in Gabon, the project hopes to co-design for energy innovation. This work is related to REFRESCH, which seeks to REsearch FRESh solutions to the energy/food/water CHallenge in resource-constrained environments.

Dr. Hardin also discussed some of the projects she is affiliated with at University of Michigan. This includes STEM-Africa, a project that intends to advance research collaborations in STEM fields (including medical and environmental studies) between University of Michigan and partner institutions in Africa. She also talked about the Environmental Justice Certificate Program at UofM and the student-run environmental talk and music show called It’s Hot in Here” (aired weekly on WCBN FM 88.3 with an accompanying blog and podcast).

 

CAS News Bulletin- Week of October 30, 2017