April 16, 2021 3:00 PM
Zoom

Friday 16 April @ 3 pm

Topic: “Infrastructures of Inequality: Justice and Democracy at the Margins”

Speaker: Dr. Leila Harris, Professor, University of British Columbia
Lecture and Q&A on Zoom: REGISTER HERE 

Abstract: This talk analyzes a decade of work on everyday processes and politics related to water (and sanitation) infrastructure, conditions and access in underserved communities of Accra, Ghana and Cape Town, South Africa. The work traces conditions and everyday meanings of uneven access to basic service infrastructures, particularly by highlighting narratives of belonging, exclusion, and inequity as key to the ways that community members navigate and respond to infrastructural conditions and politics. The work fits within the broader literature on critical infrastructural studies, and recent work that seeks to understand water access and insecurity not only in relation to public health, but broader notions of well-being, as well as emotional-affective and socio-political considerations—from senses of citizenship, to trust in government, and other key socio-political dynamics.

More about Leila Harris: Scholar profile at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability 

We are grateful for the support of these co-sponsors at UNM:

• International Studies Institute
• Africana Studies Program
• Water Resources Program
• Department of Political Science
• Resilience Institute