Hi, I'm Kirke,Â
Hi, I'm Kirke,Â
a historian of technology, environment, and culture.
a historian of technology, environment, and culture.
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I currently research the development of cement, the binder of concrete. Cement now accounts for more than 5% of human-made CO2 emissions globally. I investigate how cement factored into cultures across the United States due to its standardized material properties. Cement's relative impermeability affected what shoes Americans wore outside, how they incarcerated fellow citizens, and how they recreated and invested in a new domestic subterranean. And I articulate why that matters for today's researchers and engineers who are designing and applying alternative cements. New materials will, no doubt, have different environmental and cultural impacts on multiple scales.
I currently research the development of cement, the binder of concrete. Cement now accounts for more than 5% of human-made CO2 emissions globally. I investigate how cement factored into cultures across the United States due to its standardized material properties. Cement's relative impermeability affected what shoes Americans wore outside, how they incarcerated fellow citizens, and how they recreated and invested in a new domestic subterranean. And I articulate why that matters for today's researchers and engineers who are designing and applying alternative cements. New materials will, no doubt, have different environmental and cultural impacts on multiple scales.
Rotary kiln of the cement plant in Trident, Montana, USA. This factory, relatively tiny in the cement world, produces 350,000 tons of cement annually. In 2022, owner GCC converted the Trident Plant to produce portland-limestone cement, an alternative to conventional cement that entails marginally lower emissions. (photo: Kirke Elsass, 2019)
Click the links above to see more on this approach to research and how it informs my teaching and service.
I currently work to promote environmental history in the city where I live.
As an associate of the New Haven Environmental History Project of Yale Environmental Humanities, I research local examples that demonstrate the inseparable social and environmental dimensions of urban history. By working with talented educators at a variety of K-12 schools and across disciplinary boundaries, I help make these examples shared knowledge in our community.
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