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

This webinar focuses on migration, policing, and political movements, particularly involving the experiences of Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Mexicans, and U.S.-based Afro-Latinxs. Scholars working at the intersections of Africana, Latinx, and Latin American studies will explore the ways that these issues overlap and impact Afro-Latin Americans and their diasporic communities in the U.S.

The event is sponsored by the Global Studies Center, in collaboration with Hispanic Heritage Month and the Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies Initiative (Department of Africana Studies) at the University of Pittsburgh. Featured panelists include: Dr. Eddie Bonilla, UCIS Postdoctoral Fellow in Latinx Studies at the University of Pittsburgh; Dr. Jennifer Jones of the University of Illinois at Chicago; Dr. Zachary Morgan of Penn State University; and Dr. Keisha-Khan Y. Perry of Brown University.

Born and raised in the Philippines, Rafael immigrated to the U.S. when he was nineteen years old. He has travelled and lived across the country until settling in Pittsburgh over 10 years ago. Rafael's experience as a chef include Legume, Grit and Grace, and most recently, the Executive Chef of Bar Botanica in Lawrenceville. He is also the creator of pop-up Kanto Kitchen, a blend of Filipino with a twist. Chef Rafael was one of the chefs selected to inaugurate the culinary incubator, Smallman Galley where he learned about the business skills of being a restaurateur. His interest in farming came naturally as the next step to complementing his career as a professional chef. Living in the US has taught Rafael the importance of food and how it shapes us culturally. For most of his ventures in Pittsburgh, his aim has been to introduce and educate people in the Filipino cuisine. He is raising awareness of the importance of quality food through urban farming. His future endeavor includes opening a small eatery focused on contemporary Filipino- American cuisine.

Chef Rafael will be demonstrating his cooking of fried rice with pork belly with a side of eggplant and mango salad.

The Virtual Lunch will be on Zoom. You will receive the Zoom link and passcode after you register at https://calendar.pitt.edu/

With the Center for Global Health and Graduate School of Public Health, GSC will host Pitt's first Global Health Case Competition. This competition simulates professional practice in developing strategies to address a hypothetical global health scenario. Interdisciplinary teams of graduate and undergraduate students will develop presentations that address the scenario in a holistic way. Each team will present its strategy to a panel of experts, with the top team receiving support to participate in the 2021 Emory University International Case Competition.

Students can register as individuals or as part of a team. Each team must included graduate and undergraduate students from multiple disciplinary backgrounds. Further information can be found on our website. Questions? Reach out to Elaine.

Join us to hear from distinguished scholars and educators about methods for incorporating critical pedagogies of race into teaching about language, culture, history, and society in Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia.

OCTOBER 2

2-3:30 pm (ET) | 1-2:30 pm (CT) | 12-1:30 pm (MT) | 11am-12:30 pm (PT)

Moderator:
Anindita Banerjee, Cornell University

Speakers:
B. Amarilis Lugo de Fabritz, Howard University
Sunnie Rucker-Chang, University of Cincinnati

REGISTER IN ADVANCE: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/crees/race-in-focus

This event is part of the series "Race in Focus: From Critical Pedagogies to Research Practice and Public Engagement in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies." This series is designed to elevate conversations about teaching on race and continued disparities in our field while also bringing research by scholars and/or on communities of color to the center stage.

Stammtisch is the German Club's weekly conversation table for speaks of all levels from absolute beginners to fluent speakers. Here we practice our language skills while also learning about German culture through fun games and activities!

Zoom Meeting ID: 950 0542 1812
https://pitt.zoom.us/j/95005421812

Religious activity is a central feature of social life in contemporary Taiwan, a condition with deep historical roots. In fact, these sorts of performances of belief contributed to the construction of modern Taiwanese identities as religion became a contested field of action following Taiwan’s colonization by Japan in 1895, and its recolonization by the Republic of China in 1945. In this talk, drawn from his book Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s-1950s (Harvard Asia Center, 2019), Dr. Evan Dawley will explore the relationship between ethnic and national identities and explain how religious practice shaped and reinforced Taiwanese consciousness.