Anthropology of Water

3 units

This course examines one of the world's largest risks and grandest challenges: water security. By exploring water flows between cultures and landscapes, students will think critically about the challenges faced in different regions and societies of the world which can exacerbate or ameliorate issues of social justice and equity. Topics include cultural notions and values of water, technologies of water purification and conservation, big dam controversies, water as a right or water as a commodity, and how epistemologies of water can drastically impact people and ecosystems. Texts will mainly be anthropological but will also draw from history, political ecology, geography and development economics. These will underscore the importance of multiple contexts (social, religious, economic, political, cultural) to the understanding of the scale and scope of this major problem.