What is the Dam-Nation: Nationalism and Water Infrastructures

Undergraduate / Graduate

What do dams do? What kinds of techno-political objects are they? How do dams orient notions of nationalism, modernity, and solidarity? What does the presence or absence of dams on riverways mean for the people who live near them and who benefit from their outputs? This course explores the limitations and affordances of dams, some of the largest water and electricity infrastructures in the world. We will discuss the cultural, political, technological, and environmental productions of these infrastructures in various places throughout the planet, considering the ways in which dams are used to "control nature" in order to make-up and strengthen the power (technological and otherwise) of states and nations.