Hi, I'm Jessica Caporusso, a Ph.D. Candidiate in the Department of Anthropology at York University (Canada). I'm in the process of writing up my dissertation on the conflicts and contestation surrounding green energy regimes in the Republic of Mauritius, an island nation that is currently grappling with an unprecedented ecological disaster in-the-making. It follows two plant protagonists, sugarcane and Arundo donax, as they are refashioned into extensions of scientific imperialism in the global South. I try to highlight how demands for sustainable energy sources are accutely felt in this moment of climate crisis in Mauritius. Further, I query how biofuels derived from sugarcane and Arundo rework popular imaginaries of what counts as 'sustainable' in an increasingly carbon-constrained world.
Areas of Interest / Skills to Share:
Sense-work / Ethnography
As a sensory anthropologist, I'm interested in ways that sense-work and modes of embodiment can open new questions and possibilities for multimodal inquiry. My prior ethnographic research in sound recording studios and present work in hands-on agronomy and chemical engineering classrooms builds upon these attunements.
Open Source Mapping
During my fieldwork in Mauritius, I participated in several projects that involved walking and mapping as pedagogy. Here, I learned how to use QGIS, OpenStreetMap, and walking sketches/photography as methods for 'reading' landscapes otherwise.
WordPress / Digital Humanities
I help manage several digital humanities and course websites on Wordpress. These skills, mostly learned through trial-and-error (and some luck), were cultivated in collaboration with an interdiscipinary group of feminist scholars interested digital humanities and digital research ethics.
Anonymous, "Jessica Caporusso Collaboration Bio", contributed by , STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 10 August 2020, accessed 6 October 2024. http://www.stsinfrastructures.org/content/jessica-caporusso-collaboration-bio
Critical Commentary
This is my collaboration bio as of August 9th, 2020. I created this artifact to share with fellow participants in advance of the 6S pre-conference workshop. The full essay of collaboration bios can be found here