Water Workshop

Who has access to water, who expects more water, and where that water will come from are fundamental questions facing any desert-located society. They are also questions that have historical and contemporary connections across geographies, linking Arizona, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. In this morning symposium, artists, journalists, and scholars discuss the current challenges facing desert-located societies and the ways that their history, present, and future are interconnected. 

The stories we tell ourselves about water matter from politicians and real estate developers invoking a “100-year water supply” to utopian thinkers quoting the Hebrew prophet Isaiah proclaiming the desert will “blossom like a rose.” These stories create modern desert transformations such as the construction of Roosevelt Dam, growing alfalfa in the desert, building suburban communities over desert farmland, and building immense semiconductor plants. Join us in understanding how these desert stories make worlds and how we might imagine our own. 

Two sessions of 50 min with a 10 min break between sessions

Water experts will each give a very brief overview of the state of affairs from their area perspective followed by an intra-panel conversation and then opened to a general-audience discussion.

Anthony Acciavatti works at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and the history of science and technology. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (FAAR) and Senior Fellow at the American Institute of Indian Studies, his current research focuses on the hidden front line of climate change: groundwater extraction. Recent publications, along with exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale and Wellcome Collection in London, investigate how our thirst for water radically reshapes cities and agrarian landscapes across the world. Acciavatti is currently the Diana Balmori Associate Professor at Yale University.

Christopher Jones is an associate professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies. He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University and his master's and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania History and Sociology of Science Department. Before joining ASU, he held postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Ciriacy-Wantrup Fellowship at the University of California-Berkeley.

His first book, Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America (Harvard, 2014), analyzes the causes and consequences of America's first energy transitions. He is currently working on a book provisitionally titled The Invention of Infinite Growth (under contract with Chicago University Press) that explores how economists have come to calculate ever-increasing growth without accounting for the natural world. 

He is committed to public outreach and has published in The New Republic, Aeon, Huffington Post, The Atlantic, and Zocalo Public Square. 

Upmanu Lall is the director of the Water Institute at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. He is also a professor in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems within the College of Global Futures. He developed and led a Global Water Sustainability Initiative, a Global Flood Initiative, and the America’s Water Initiative. In addition to contributing to hydrology, climate dynamics, statistics and machine learning, and risk/insurance analysis, he has worked with colleagues, development banks, governments and the private sector to implement financial, technical and policy solutions for water and climate challenges from village to country scale on all major continents. 

Francisco Lara-Valencia is a professor at the School of Transborder Studies and Southwest Borderland Scholar at Arizona State University. He has lectured in Mexico and the U.S. teaching primarily urban and environmental planning, transborder theory and US-Mexico border development. His research focuses on socio-environmental vulnerability, regional development, urban governance and planning, and the role of community networks on sustainable development in U.S.-Mexico border and the U.S. Southwest.

Christian Sawyer is a local organizer, community lobbyist, sustainable home builder, musician, researcher, and groundwater activist in rural southeast Arizona. He is a journalist for the Arizona Agenda, as well as for Ground Party Papers, a local newsletter for alternative, off-grid, sustainable lifestyles.

Patrick Thomson works on the Arizona Water for All project. His research focuses on the causes and impacts of poor-quality water supplies and inadequate water service provision, with an emphasis on improving water security for low-income communities. His work integrates social science, natural science, and engineering, focusing on three key areas: Modular, Adaptive, and Decentralized Water Infrastructure; Health Impacts of Water Insecurity; and Innovations in Water Service Provision. 

Lindsey Wede is a Rio Verde Foothills resident whose lived experience reflects the realities of Arizona’s growing water crisis. Drawn to the peace and open desert landscapes of the foothills, she and her family soon found themselves navigating the challenges of relying on a private shared well, and the sobering realities of not having access to water.  Unbeknownst to Lindsey when they moved, the area was already embroiled in a long-standing dispute with the City of Scottsdale, which culminated in the community’s loss of hauled water services in 2023.

As neighbors scrambled for solutions, Lindsey’s well became both a safeguard for her family and a stark reminder of the inequities in water security across Maricopa County. With Arizona’s water future increasingly uncertain, she has recognized the urgent need for residents to advocate for sustainable, long-term solutions while educating themselves about how policy and development decisions will directly affect their daily lives.

Lindsey brings a unique, ground-level perspective to conversations about water rights, rural development, and sustainability in Arizona—underscoring the importance of collaboration between policymakers, municipalities, and local communities.

Amber Wutich is a Regents Professor, President’s Professor, Director of the Center for Global Health, and MacArthur Fellow. An expert on water insecurity, Wutich directs the Global Ethnohydrology Study, a cross-cultural study of water knowledge and management in 20+ countries. Her two decades of community-based fieldwork explore how people respond, individually and collectively, to extremely water-scarce conditions. She leads Action for Water Equity, a participatory convergence study that develops collaborative water solutions with water-insecure U.S. communities. An ethnographer and methodologist, Wutich has authored 200+ papers, co-authored 6 books, edits the journal Field Methods, and directs the NSF Cultural Anthropology Methods Program. Her teaching has been recognized with awards such as Carnegie CASE Arizona Professor of the Year. Wutich has raised over $80 million in research funds, as part of collaborative research teams, from NSF, USDA, USACE, the State of Arizona, and other funders.

• For in-person attendees, light refreshments and drinks will be provided.
• For online attendees, the event will be livestreamed on ASU Live.

For a full listing of all the Humanities Institute events visit https://humanitiesinstitute.asu.edu/events