Water
Water is a material of enormous paradox, among them the seeming contradiction between the fact that it is necessary for life yet is often valued so little that people use it as a convenient dumping ground. Many academic disciplines and professional practices focus on water-related issues, yet until fairly recently the subject of water itself was relegated to realms of science and engineering. Much, but not all, of the material in this section comes from those areas, but all make water central, rather than the human uses or attitudes toward water.
The Land-Water-Place Program
Opening Doors to Understanding Equity and Justice
Challenges facing scholars and practitioners working on issues pertaining to land, water, and community call for innovative perspectives that reach across traditional boundaries and professions. While specialized expertise will always be important, this web site is designed to support cross-disciplinary thinking. The short articles featured on this site are intended to achieve three goals:
Making Place from Story
We commonly make sense of place through story. Beginning in 2016, a coalition of six state agencies in Minnesota, working with host sites around the state, developed a traveling exhibit and associated activities focusing on the water that makes Minnesota such a distinctive place.
Water In the Native World: Science and So Much More
Connections between water and Indigenous lives have been in the news a great deal, especially after the Standing Rock conflict in 2016-17. Often, and deservedly so, articles speak to the spiritual and cultural meanings of water for different Indigenous groups, and to how those values have endured in the face of colonizing hostility or indifference...
It Matters Who is Downstream
Richard M. Mizelle, Jr., a historian at the University of Houston, masterfully lays out the history and contested geographies of water in east-central North Carolina along the Tar River. Even from its 19th-century origins, the mostly African American community of Princeville struggled to form community on marshy, frequently flooded ground.
Water
Water is a material of enormous paradox, among them the seeming contradiction between the fact that it is necessary for life yet is often valued so little that people use it as a convenient dumping ground. Many academic disciplines and professional practices focus on water-related issues, yet until fairly recently the subject of water itself was relegated to realms of science and engineering. Much, but not all, of the material in this section comes from those areas, but all make water central, rather than the human uses or attitudes toward water.