Jan 17
Chemistry Department Seminar: Sarah Kennedy, Carleton College
Assistant Professor, Archaeology & Latin American Studies, Carleton College
"Toxic Landscapes of Labor: Using pXRF Spectroscopy to Identify Heavy Metals in Archaeological Soils"
Sarah began the Proyecto Arqueológico Medio Ambiental in 2022 in collaboration with the Indigenous communities of Collacachi and Malcomayo, as well the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (Lima, Peru) and the University of Sydney (Sydney, Australia) to examine Indigenous labor in Peru in a broad spatial-temporal environmental context. In 2022, her team, consisting of many Carleton students, performed a series of geochemical soil, water, and vegetation surveys at historic silver refineries in the western Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru using portable X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF). The preliminary results of these surveys revealed hazardous levels of mercury, lead, arsenic, and antimony in the soils of these sites. These findings speak to the health risks associated with working in industrial landscapes in the past and emphasize the continued impact colonial mining has had on modern descendant communities.
*This seminar counts towards the chemistry major seminar attendance requirement.