Events in UCIS

Tuesday, September 29 until Friday, October 2

11:00 am Workshop
Water Infrastructure and Regional Governance
Location:
Online
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies, European Studies Center and Global Studies Center along with Urban Studies Program, Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory, Congress of Neighboring Communities (CONNECT) and Regional Studies Association (UK)
See Details

Water Infrastructure and Regional Governance, September 29 - October 2, 2020

The Regional Studies Association’s Research Network on Infrastructural Regionalism (NOIR) is convening three online (Zoom) workshops to showcase empirical and conceptual research at the intersection of water governance, infrastructure, and regionalism. Water infrastructure performs a vital role in making and remaking regions. Watersheds and reservoirs, pipelines and ports, and storm water management and climate change mitigation represent complex political, economic, and environmental challenges. They are essential, if often black-boxed infrastructures that define how regional space is constructed, territorialized, and experienced. As critical urban infrastructures and contested political objects, water systems are fundamental to conversations about sustainability and economic development trajectories for communities across the global South and global North.

We are now accepting registrations for the NOIR Workshops on Water Infrastructure and Regional Governance. This event will assess how water infrastructure shapes formal and informal regional spaces, communities, and governance dynamics and explores how these shape how water infrastructure is developed. We are hosting four public panels that present research on what water infrastructure reveals about the politics and governance of metropolitan regions.

REGISTER: https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7amhh1MQpKV09Eh

TUESDAY, September 29 | 11am - 1pm ET
Water Infrastructure and Regional Governance in and beyond Western Pennsylvania

11 - 11:10am | University of Pittsburgh/CONNECT Welcome
CONNECT Executive Director Lydia Morin

11:10 - 11:20am | Regional Studies Association Welcome, Keynote Introductions
Michael Glass, University of Pittsburgh

11:20 - 11:50am | Keynote 1: Infrastructures of Inequality
Leila Harris, University of British Columbia

11:50am - 12:20pm | Keynote 2: Thinking Regionally, Acting Strategically: New Approaches to Governing Regional Water Infrastructures
Andy Karvonen, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

12:20 - 12:35pm | Discussant Response
Dan Bain, Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory

12:35pm - 1pm | Moderated Audience Q&A

WEDNESDAY, September 30 | 11am - 12pm ET
RESEARCH PANEL 1: Decision-Making and Engagement in Water Governance
MODERATOR: Jen Nelles; Q&A: JP Addie

Regional infrastructures are often taken for granted by the public, with the consequence that infrastructural management and planning is surrendered to experts and institutions that may not be representative of the region overall. By tracing the lines of authority and influence that shape city-region infrastructures, we hope to reveal opportunities for greater engagement of more diverse publics in the deliberations over infrastructural futures.

Anne Taufen, Lisa Hoffman, Ken Yocom (University of Washington-Tacoma): Unveiling Infrastructures
Ramazan Sayan & Nidhi Nagabhatla (UN University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health): An Infrastructure Turn in Water Sharing
Fenna Hoefsloot, Javier Martinez, & Karin Pfeffer (University of Twente): Speculative futures of Lima’s water infrastructure
Cat Button (University of Newcastle): Governing Water Infrastructure from our Homes

THURSDAY, October 1 | 1am - 12pm ET
RESEARCH PANEL 2: Regional Partnerships Under Threat
MODERATOR: Michael Glass; Q&A: Jen Nelles

Whereas regional infrastructures such as sewer lines, water treatment plants, and water transportation technologies (namely locks and dams) were constructed as part of earlier periods of urban and regional development, shifting patterns of demand threaten to diminish the utility of these assets. We need to ascertain how such changing dynamics are influencing (and being influenced by) the existing governance of those infrastructural networks.

Andrew Dick & Sara Hughes (University of Michigan): The Multi-City Growth Machine in Regional Governance Networks—the case of the Karegnondi Water Authority
Dayne Walling (University of Minnesota): Urban Geographies of Fragmentation and Distress: Government Planning, Development, Infrastructure, and Inequality around Deindustrialized US Cities
Sachin Tiwale (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai): Grabbing Water Resources in Urban Agglomeration—The Case of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)
Grete Gansauer & Julia Haggerty (Montana State University): Regionalizing the Rural through Large-Scale water Infrastructure
Karsten Zimmerman (TU Dortmund): Infrastructure Regionalism as Driver for Metropolitan Governance? The Case of the Ruhr Region in Germany

FRIDAY, October 2 | 11am - 12pm ET
RESEARCH PANEL 3: Emerging Complexities in Regional Water Governance
MODERATOR: JP Addie; Q&A Michael Glass

Health crises, Federal mandates, technological innovation, and exogenous shocks can all disrupt formal and informal governance structures. We seek empirical examples and theoretical advances that can help to conceptualize how city-regions across the Global North and Global South are affected by these complexities, and to seek out best practices whereby specific regions are confronting these complexities.

Mark Usher (University of Manchester): Hydraulic Territory: Internal colonization through urban catchment management in Singapore
Filippo Menga & Michael K. Goodman (University of Reading): The Good Samaritan: Capitalism, Religion and the Political Economy of Care in International Water Charity
Mike Finewood (Pace University), Marissa Matsler, Olivia Pierce, Zenya Lederman, & Ruthann Richards: What does it mean to empower communities? Green infrastructure incentive programs as a form of neoliberal governance
Scott Raulerson, Richard Milligan, & Ellis Adams (Georgia State University): Urban Water and Hydrosocial Inequalities

Thursday, October 1

11:30 am Information Session
Center for Latin American Studies - Virtual Office Hours
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Center for Latin American Studies and Global Hub
See Details

Speak with a student ambassador from the Center for Latin American Studies to learn about their certificate offerings, programs, and more.

Virtual Office Hours:
Mondays 11AM-12PM
Tuesdays 12-1PM
Thursdays 11:30AM-12:30PM

4:00 pm Information Session
Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies - Virtual Office Hours
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies and Global Hub
See Details

Speak with a student ambassador from the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies to learn about their certificate offerings, events, scholarships and more.

Zoom Link: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/91198700639

4:00 pm Information Session
European Studies Center - Virtual Office Hours
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
European Studies Center and Global Hub
See Details

Speak with a student ambassador from the European Studies Center to learn about their four certificate offerings, events, scholarships, symposia and more.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86171673232?pwd=aThWaHhxeDFsTEdPeGZsdzZaS01EQT09
Password: 4Lkh8d

4:00 pm Cultural Event
Laber Rhabarber - The German Conversation Hour
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Department of German
See Details

Want to practice your German in a casual environment and get to know other students and faculty that share your love for this language? Then Laber Rhabarber is for you! All levels of German and all kinds of people are welcome!

Zoom Link: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/91424897554

4:00 pm Cultural Event
Something's Brewing: Make Tea, Not War
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center and Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies
See Details

Join the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies and the Asian Studies Center for a demonstration and tasting of Japanese green teas. We will discuss tea in the context of regional conflicts, starting with the Russo-Japanese war, and guide the audience in the proper brewing techniques.

REGISTER for the Zoom event here: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIsdeqtpzMvGtPgzq853StKB1QxhqP3exHN

6:00 pm Film
CLAS Film Series Presents: Mapa de Sueños Latinoamericanos
Location:
Online (Zoom)
Sponsored by:
Center for Latin American Studies
See Details

This striking documentary, written and directed by Argentine artist Martín Weber, takes us all over Latin America, from Argentina, to Peru, Nicaragua, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and to Mexico. From 1992 to 2013, Weber photographed various people throughout Latin America, asking them to write their dreams on a chalkboard. Years later, he wondered if those dreams had been fulfilled. This film documents his journey over 8 years to find the same people and to give testimony to their dreams and lives.

After the film, please join us for a discussion and Q&A session led by the director, Martín Weber.

For more information and to see the trailer please visit: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/cinema

Registration for the film opens on September 18, 2020. Registration will close on October 1, 2020 at 4:30 pm. Please visit this link to register: https://tinyurl.com/yybaddma

The day of the film you will receive information about how to watch the film online as well as the link for the Zoom meeting to join the discussion after the film.