GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES EXPERTS FROM FIVE CONTINENTS DISCUSS WATER FUTURES
Water is essential for life on earth and has profoundly shaped societies and cultures throughout history. Issues such as flooding, drought, rising sea levels, pollution, and limited access to drinking water were key topics addressed at the International Symposium “Precarious Water Futures and the End(s) of World(s)—an Integrative Dialogue Across Disciplines and Societies." Held at the India International Centre in New Delhi, the symposium brought together more than thirty scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, representing Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australia. These researchers examined the complex and interconnected challenges of water crises in the context of the climate emergency and the potential “end(s) of world(s)” that such crises may entail.
The Symposium opened on November 13, 2024, with a public fireside chat featuring five experts discussing the Aquatic Polycrisis. The session drew an engaged audience of over 200 participants from different walks of life. From November 14-16, the symposium continued with nine thematic panels, three discussion rounds, and a special lecture, all of which explored water futures. Topics ranged from the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand and the everyday apocalypse caused by water tank economies to the life of sex workers of the Sundarbans coastline.
CAPAS organized the Symposium in collaboration with the M.S. Merian—R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies ‘Metamorphoses of the Political’ (ICAS:MP), New Delhi, India; the School of Environmental Sciences (SES) at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; the Rachel Carson Center (RCC), Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany; and the South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg University, Germany. The article “Knowing, Thinking and Writing Water—On the necessity of blue humanities”, written by Friederike Reents, summarizes her special lecture—one of the symposium’s highlights—in which she advocates for the importance of blue humanities.
