This special session will focus on the conceptualization and implementation of water museums across the globe. Presenters will focus on the water museum from its theoretical conceptualization through its implementation. A special focus will be placed on multi-local and international networks and collaborations in both creating and sustaining water museums.

Panelists

Jason M. Kelly, Museum of the Anthropocene

Jason M. Kelly, PHD is Director of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute and Professor of History in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.Dr. Kelly received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and is the author of The Society of Dilettanti: Archaeology and Identity in the British Enlightenment (Yale University Press and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2010), lead editor of Rivers of the Anthropocene (University of California Press, 2017), and co-editor of An Anthropocene Primer (2017).

Sara Ahmed, Living Water Museum

Sara Ahmed, PHD is Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Heritage Management at Ahmedabad University. She has over 25 years of applied research experience on water, livelihoods and social equity. She has been actively engaged in teaching and mentoring young development professionals in India, managing large and complex regional research portfolios on water, food security and climate change in Asia, and advising a range of development organisations and water networks globally. Sara holds a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of Cambridge and is currently on the board of WaterAid, India. She has published extensively on water governance and her last co-edited book is entitled, Diverting the Flow: Gender Equity and Water in South Asia(2012).

Eriberto Eulisse, Water Museums Global Network

Eriberto Eulisse is the Director of the Centro Internazionale Civiltà dell'Acqua Onlus Coordinator - Global Network of Water Museums (UNESCO-IHP). At Ca' Foscari University, he leads the organization and management of projects, conferences, seminars, training activities and educational workshops related to the ethical concerns over water use and management. His focus on developing a "new water culture" is embodied in projects and publications aimed at promoting the preservation of water places and cultures at local, national and international level: for the enhancement of the historical navigable waterways, the protection of aquatic ecosystems, river requalification, risk management plumbing, education for sustainable development, the ecological footprint, decentralized cooperation with Third World countries, the recovery of traditional knowledge and knowledge.

Farah Kabir, ActionAid Water Museum in Bangladesh

Farah Kabir is ActionAid’s country director in Bangladesh. ActionAid is an international charity working with the poorest women and girls in the world and was responsible for establishing the first Water Museum in the Patuakhali coastal district in Bangladesh. Farah Kabir has been working in development and humanitarian assistance for nearly two decades. In 2012, she won the Nawab Ali Chowdhury national award for her contribution to women's empowerment in Bangladesh.