Biography
Hannah is a PhD Candidate in the History of Science department at Harvard University. They are an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersections of history, STS, and visual art in Appalachia and the Deep South. They hold MAs in History and the History of Science from the College of Charleston and Harvard University, as well as a BS in Technical Photography from Appalachian State University, and currently reside full time in Memphis, Tennessee.
Research
My doctoral dissertation is a multi-sited historical, ethnographic, and critical media practices study that traces the development and aging of large technological systems in Memphis, Tennessee, western Mississippi, and the lower Atchafalaya basin of Louisiana. Each site has been chosen because of a present, community-identified concern over infrastructure siting, maintenance, or repair that tangibly impacts everyday lives and livelihoods as well as the health of the surrounding environment and communities. By focusing on the lifetimes of infrastructures as they expand across human generations, my work brings to the foreground the interconnections between technology and nature; how engineers navigate not just technological challenges but also environmental, community, and political concerns in the siting, construction, and maintaining of large technological systems; and how non-scientific publics gather, interpret, and communicate knowledge about the infrastructure systems that are meant to serve them. I conjoin the technological and environmental history of the Delta region to consider the implications and impacts of infrastructure construction on both community livelihoods and environmental health. In doing so, my project situates infrastructure failure and maintenance as central concerns of communities fighting for environmental justice.
