Photos in Transmotion

Stephen Graham Jones’ Ledfeather (2008), a semi-epistolary, semi-historical novel, poses questions about how historical knowledge is made and what to do with it. While scholars have studied the novel’s postmodern attributes as methods for subversive critiques of historiography in indigenous colonial contexts, as of yet no study prioritizes the novel’s use of photographs toward these aims. After situating the novel’s engagement with photographs into histories of photography and indigenous colonization, I examine the rhetorical role of these photos in the complex Ledfeather narrative. Guided by Gerald Vizenor’s framing of “the indian [as] poselocked in portraiture” (Fugitive Poses 146), I argue that the photos enact Vizenor’s sense of transmotion, or “the tease of creation in pictures, memories, and stories” (Fugitive Poses 173). I end by considering the rhetorical relationships between images and words both in archival collections that are specific to these histories and in Ledfeather as postmodern historical fiction

Diffuse Minewater Pollution: Quantification and Risk Assessment in the Tamar Catchment

Merged with duplicate record: 10026.1/2901 on 01.02.2017 by CS (TIS)Abandoned metal mines in the Tamar catchment, south west England, represent a significant threat to surface water quality via generation of acid mine waters. Currently the River Tamar fails environmental quality standards (EQS) established under the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) for dissolved Cu (x ̅ = 0.19 ± 0.05 μmol L-1) and Zn (x ̅ = 0.19 ± 0.06 μmol L-1, both 1997-2007) downstream of historic mining area of Gunnislake. The aim of this study was to quantify the risk to surface water quality by diffuse drainage generated by mine waste tips. For the first time, a GIS model was compiled and used to generate a priority list of known areas of mine waste, based on physical and environmental factors. The methodology was consistent with European guidance documentation published to meet the requirements of the Mining Waste Directive (2001/21/EC) and has since been applied, in a modified form, to other catchments in south west England. Two study sites, with contrasting mineralogy and hydrology, scored highly in the model and were the subject of field investigations from 2007-2009. These were Devon Great Consols (DGC), an abandoned Cu-As mine near Gunnislake and Wheal Betsy (WB), an abandoned Pb-Ag mine, near Mary Tavy. At each site, surface waters and shallow groundwaters were sampled and analysed for dissolved metals (including Al, Cu, Zn, Mn, Pb, Ni, and Cd), metalloids (As, Sb), major ions and anions. Samples of four selected mine waste tips were also gathered and subjected to a range of laboratory leaching experiments including the novel application of a dynamic upflow percolation test, based on an existing European method (CEN TS 14405). Leachates generated by the waste tips in the field were highly variable and elevated with respect to EQS for Al (up to 1850 μmol L-1), Cu (570 μmol L-1), Zn (34 μmol L-1), Ni (3.8 μmol L-1), Cd (0.17 μmol L-1), Mn (216 μmol L-1), Fe(537 μmol L-1) , As (380 μmol L-1) and Sb (5.4 μmol L-1). Estimated annual fluxes of dissolved metals were predicted using average rainfall data and catchment areas calculated in ArcHydro9 to estimate the annual discharge of waters from the tip. These calculations showed annual contaminant flux from the tips to exceed, or be of the same order of magnitude to, major adit discharges in the catchment (e.g. Cu 50900-66900 mol y-1 at DGC and 470 mol y-1 Cd at WB) and represented a significant contributor to metal flux in the Tamar catchment. Primary sulphide minerals in the waste were generally highly altered and metals (Pb, Cu, Zn, and Mn) and As were found to be strongly associated with secondary iron minerals, precipitated under oxic conditions. In finer wastes, sorption to clay minerals was also found to be very important for the retention of dissolved metals, particularly Pb. Concentrations of contaminants in column field leachates were similar for most metals (Cu, Zn, Mn, Ni and Cd) and may provide a useful tool for prediction of leachate composition. However, sorption and release of metals and As to the secondary phases and clays were highly sensitive to pH change and where laboratory experiments did not replicate field pH, discrepancies between in situ and laboratory results were observed up to two orders of magnitude in scale (particularly for As and Pb).Great Western Research, Environment Agency, University of Exete

Payment in the Polity: Funded Community Writing Projects

In this collaborative essay Audrey Simango, Matthew Stadler, and Alison Turner--Reader/Advisor/Editors (RAEs) at The GOAT PoL--explore the subject of money. Most discussions about money have focused on debates over compensation of research subjects (Snow et al. 54), or connections between community writing and well-funded projects, such as the Federal Writers Project of the 1930s (Mutnick). After providing context for The GOAT PoL, we reflect on the way our small payments to participants shift our relationships. We ask: 1) How does the exchange of money on The GOAT PoL affect the RAE\u27s experience of reading, editing, and advising authors? 2) How do the challenges we encounter by paying authors make visible what we thought we knew about power and privilege across international writing projects?; and 3) Is it possible for the exchange of money--with its unpredictable impacts--to expand and deepen, rather than shrink and diminish, the polity of literature