The Middle East Studies Center and the Middle East Studies Collection at the Library of the Ohio State University are curating knowledge at our university and beyond pertaining to water, climate, and related topics. We work with faculty from diverse units on campus, hosting forums (see below), developing research guides to both water and climate, and producing our own publications.
The Middle East Studies Center, the Middle East Studies Collection at the Library, the Global Water Institute, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, International Programs in Agriculture, and the Office of Research in the College of Arts and Sciences are partnering to host annual forums on local/global dimensions of water conflict and cooperation. We’ve hosted or co-hosted a number of water-related lectures and workshops focused on transboundary water conflict/cooperation since 2015. Here is a list of previous activities:
Our goals: We hope to foster interdisciplinary exchange at OSU, engage students in global studies relevant to Ohio State’s Discovery Themes, and build research communities across the various academic units focusing on water and related environmental topics. These include (but are not limited to) the Global Water Institute, the Sustainable and Resilient Economy Program, International Programs in Agriculture, and the School of Earth Sciences.
Planned activities: We are seeking partnership on a forum in 2021. We will seek co-sponsorship from industry partners, in addition to OSU colleges, and charge a registration fee. The first forum will focus mainly on OSU faculty and local partners to define the direction of the project and will therefore be free of charge and lower cost.
Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons