Aftermath Learning Lab is a research and art lab founded in 2019 that has several grant-funded projects.

Aftermath Learning Lab is an environmental health research and art lab whose mission is to reduce global textile waste and other technology-related pollution through research at the intersection of art, policy, developmental psychology, education, and public health with an applied environmental justice lens. The lab is an academic-community partnership between researchers at Boston College and partners Make Fashion Clean (MFC) and The Matilda Flow Inclusion Foundation (MFI Foundation). The lab is run by an interdisciplinary team of researchers studying human development, informal STEM learning, health equity, and design-driven thinking along with artists, environmental educators, and activists. The lab was founded in 2019 out of years of related collaboration between Dr. Julia DeVoy, Dielle Lundberg, and Matilda Lartey.

Website: aftermathlearninglab.com
Instagram: @aftermathlearninglab
Email: info@aftermathlearninglab.com

Learn more about the Aftermath Learning Lab team.

The MFI Foundation:

The Matilda Flow Inclusion Foundation (The MFI Foundation) is a non-profit community-based organization in Greater Accra, Ghana. The organization operates an upcycling studio at which artisans and trainees who have been displaced by the global fast fashion and secondhand clothing industries create tie-dye and denim products out of textile waste sent to Ghana from the Global North. The organization centers women, disabled people, and parents of children with disabilities in its programs and advocacy around the barriers to basic income these groups often face in the community and globally. The organization was founded by Matilda Lartey, a fashion designer and environmental educator, and is governed by a board of local activists and artisans. Learn more at mfifoundationghana.org, or follow MFI on Instagram at @mfifashionghana.

Make Fashion Clean (MFC):

Make Fashion Clean (MFC or MFC Tie-Dye Inc.) is a 501c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce global fashion pollution by upcycling textile waste and educating about pollution. MFC creates repurposed denim and tie-dye products out of textile waste sent to Ghana from the Global North in partnership with a non-profit community-based organization in Greater Accra, Ghana called The Matilda Flow Inclusion Foundation (The MFI Foundation). This upcycling partnership generates employment and job training in the creative economy for artisans who have been displaced by the global fast fashion and secondhand clothing industries. It also diverts textile waste from landfills, open-air dumps, and the environment to reduce the impacts of pollution. MFC also collaborates with the The Aftermath Learning Lab on research and art projects at the intersection of textile-related pollution, policy, education, environment, and health. Learn more at makefashionclean.org, or follow MFC on Instagram @makefashionclean.

Recent grants received by Aftermath Learning Lab include an Ignite Grant from Boston College for academic year 2020-2021, a Schiller Institute Grant for Exploratory Collaborative Scholarship (SIGECS) from Boston College for academic year 2021-2022, and a follow-up SIGECS grant from Boston College for academic year 2022-2023.

Project Title:

Development of an Educational, Multiplayer Video Game to Address Environmental Racism and Drive Political and Community Action

Collaborators:

This was a one-year Schiller Institute Grant for Exploratory Collaborative Scholarship (SIGECS) from Boston College. The principal investigator was Dr. Julia DeVoy, and the co-investigators and collaborators included Dielle J. Lundberg, Dr. Brian Smith, Mark Cooper, Matilda Lartey, Sunand Bhattacharrya, Dr. Martin Scanlan, and Dr. David Deese. The budget was 50,000 USD and mostly supported research staff and costs of public-facing events.

Project Summary:

Textile pollution is an issue of environmental racism that disproportionately affects countries in the Global South. Despite the scale of the problem (more than 34 billion pounds of textile waste generated annually in the U.S.), awareness of textile waste as a public health issue remains low. More importantly, for those who are educated about this issue, it remains unclear how individuals and in particular youth can come together to contribute to meaningful political and community actions that will address the environmental racism of textile pollution and lead to local and systemic changes. Video games and virtual reality have previously been used to educate and engage youth on issues of social and environmental justice. This led our team to ask: how can we leverage video or other game-based learning technology to engage youth on the topics of environmental racism and textile pollution and spur political and community action? We will use design thinking processes to build the game and use policy analysis and stakeholder interviews to develop an innovative political engagement tool. Anticipated scholarly deliverables include a symposia on structural solutions to textile pollution, policy briefs, and a scientific paper leveraging data from our team’s prior research to analyze environmental savings of various policies.

Completed Deliverables:

• A game-based learning prototype created through a year-long design thinking workshop series that the lab is now seeking funding to further develop, test, and evaluate

• A database of laws and policies related to global textile pollutions for use in future scholarship

• The LEAPS Textile Waste Conference about structural and policy solutions to global textile pollution held inaugurally in 2023, with plans to continue annually

• An online panel discussion about the environmental racism of global textile pollution with sustainability expert Stacey Johnson and fashion designer Matilda Lartey

• Other public-facing events in partnership with The Boston University Arts Initiative, The Boston University School of Public Health, The Boston Public Library, and The Wilmington Memorial Library

Project Title:

Assessing Public Health and Environmental Racism Impacts of Textile Pollution through Computer-Based Social Justice Research and Multi-Media Art and Data Dissemination

Collaborators:

This was a one-year Schiller Institute Grant for Exploratory Collaborative Scholarship (SIGECS) from Boston College. The principal investigator was Dr. Julia DeVoy with co-investigators and collaborators Dielle Lundberg, Dr. Brian Smith, Mark Cooper, Matilda Lartey, Sunand Bhattacharrya, and Dr. Martin Scanlan. The budget was 50,000 USD and supported research staff time, sculpture development and exhibition, and development of educational resources and informal learning content.

Project Summary:

Many individuals are unaware that post-consumer textile pollution is a serious public health hazard and an issue of environmental racism that disproportionately affects communities in the Global South, those with lower socioeconomic status, and quite often communities of color.  Every year, people in the U.S. generate more than 36 billion pounds of textile waste, of which 66% is sent directly into landfills, 19% is incinerated, and only 15% is recycled. Among the small amount “recycled,” more than 30% is shipped overseas, where it ends-up degrading mostly in open-air dumps. Decomposing textiles produce greenhouse gases and leachates that pollute groundwater, harm respiratory health and degrade environmental contexts for all living species. Despite the scale of the problem, public awareness of textile waste as a health, environmental racism and social justice issue remains relatively low. Our project aims to address and amplify this critical challenge of textile waste, as an issue of environmental injustice, environmental racism, and risk to human health. The project work involves research collaboration across fields of engineering and design, computational learning, art and art advocacy, applied developmental psychology, social justice education, public health, and environmental studies.

Completed Deliverables:

• Design and construction of The Aftermath Sculpture, an art advocacy collaboration about the environmental health impacts of global textile pollution

• Short documentary about The Aftermath Sculpture

• Exhibition of The Aftermath Sculpture at The McMullen Museum at Boston College and at The ACCelerate Festival at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

• Development and iteration of The Textile Waste Facts Educational Resource, a free crash course about global textile pollution to accompany The Aftermath Sculpture