What's On

In recent years, research in various disciplines has demonstrated the importance of inclusive and transdisciplinary modes of water governance (if this is even the right word) for both human and non-human health and wellbeing.  Bringing this about in real world contexts of inequalities and competing interests can, however, be something else entirely! This challenge has encouraged scholars to experiment, to push their usual modes of engagement and thinking across disciplines and publics.

Last year, the Ilkley Clean River Group’s (ICRG) (https://sites.google.com/view/cleanwharfeilkley/home) citizen-led campaign achieved a first for rivers in the UK – bathing water status for a stretch of the Wharfe, Yorkshire. As a key figure in the ICRG, Kathleen Roberts will share some of her experiences within this potentially transformative process.

In April 2021, Vania Belén Suárez and Amy Sharrocks met on a street corner in Leeds for a conversation about water as part of The Ballad of Crown Point Bridge. By the banks of the River Aire, at the very point that it connects with the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and the Aire & Calder Navigation which bisect England, they began a conversation about water as a natural element which led them into the connections of water with migration, mobility among nation-states, border control and race.