Worlds at Waste: The Crisis of Water in the Subcontinent

April 7, 2023

Columbia University


AP Photo/Zahid Hussain

Registration/Attendance

Eventbrite

Program

Schedule and Program

Organizing Team

Manan Ahmed
Kamini Masood
Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
Jozef Sulik

Prompt

The focus of this day-long workshop, “Worlds at Waste: Water,” is to reflect on recent climate events that have caused massive displacement in southern Pakistan, northeastern and southwestern India and Bangladesh. It aims to bring together scientists and social scientists to help look through the lens of historical pasts, politics, and an embedded presents. Devastations and displacement from water caused by climate crists is and will remain a recurring, returning, and pervasive phenomenon in the global south. This approach intends a shift away from the focus on modeling catastrophic futures, the periodization of eras, and mapping the implications of climate change that prevails in current dialogues on climate change. Rather the workshop guides towards a conversation that foregrounds human and environmental vulnerability in non-Western, transnational spaces with indigenous and historical means of resilience. The intention is to continue this series with focus on Air and Land in the following academic year.

Participants

Sunil Amrith (History, Yale University)
Amita Baviskar (Environmental Studies and Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University)
Karine Gagné (Sociology & Anthropology, University of Guelph)
Maira Hayat (Environment and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame)
Marvi Mazhar (Karachi)
Madeeha Merchant (C4SR, Columbia)
Hung T. T. Nguyen(Biology and Paleo Environment, Columbia Climate School)
Andrew Rumbach (Senior Fellow, Urban Institute)
Adam Sobel (Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia Engineering)

Funding & Support

Format

The workshop consists of four panels and a roundtable. Each panel will be an hour, and will address one key area of expertise from melting glaciers, to floods, to displacement and finally to the rising sea water. Each panel will thus consists of two presenters who will each present for 20 or so minutes on their current, on-going research. Their presentation will be followed by comments from the Chair of the panel. The intent is to put into direct conversation a climate scientist with a social scientist; a climate activist and a policy expert. The participants will share their presentation or deck w/ their co-panelist in advance of the workshop and we expect the panel to reflect that engagement. The final roundtable will be a chance for the audience and the workshop to reflect together. We will seek to publish the presentations as short-essays in an online fora.

Schedule

April 7th, 2023

Welcomes & Coffee (10:00-10:30)

Melt (10:30-11:30)

Chair: Manan Ahmed
Panelists: Karine Gagné & Andrew Rumbach

Flood (11:45-12:45)

Chair: Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
Panelists: Amita Baviskar & Hung T. T. Nguyen

Displacement (13:45-15:00)

Chair: Manan Ahmed
Panelists: Marvi Mazhar & Maira Hayat & Madeeha Merchant

Sea (15:15-16:15)

Chair: Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
Adam Sobel & Sunil Amrith

Concluding Roundtable with all Participants (16:15-17:00)

Venue

Buell Hall, Columbia

Lodgings

Arthouse Hotel

Dinner

Workshop Dinner for Participants and Guests- April 7th (18:00) - Lido Harlem Restaurant (set menu, wine only)

Visa & Reimbursements

We are happy to provide a letter if you need a visa to travel for the conference. We are happy to reimburse your air or train transportation to the workshop. We will sponsor three nights stay for participants coming from outside US and 1 night stay for those joining us from within US. Please find below instructions for reimbursements:

Guidelines for Travel Reimbursements
All payees must submit a tax form and an expense form in addition to receipts and proof of payment in order to receive reimbursement. Please ensure all of the information on the expense form is legible. If there are questions or problems with the payment, the payee will be contacted via email. Payee should request reimbursement within 10 days of the expense/trip. Please Note: The University observes all INS and IRS regulations regarding payment to nonresident aliens. Certain visa types preclude payment of expenses, professional services, per diem, or salary.
Payable foreign nationals must submit a W-8BEN form, copy of passport (visa page and ID page), a Non-Employee Expense form, and receipts.
United States Citizens and Permanent Residents: Citizens and Permanent Residents seeking expense reimbursement must submit a W-9 form, a Non-Employee Expense form, and receipts.
Required forms
- W-9
- W-8BEN