Climate & Community: How Local Knowledge and Power Asymmetries Influence Climate Adaptations in Sudan and the American Southwest
Virtual Event
This event is a professional development webinar for K-14 teachers and is supported by funding from the Department of Education – Title VI.
Many communities across the globe are facing severe disruptions from climate-change. Large-scale projects like solar farms and seawalls often dominate the headlines, but bottom-up, community-based adaptations to climate emergencies are just as critical. Local mobilizations drawing on traditional knowledge and bonds of solidarity can help populations across the globe to mitigate the harsh consequences of climate change. Drawing on their research in Sudan and in the American Southwest, these scholars examine how power relations, local knowledge, communal ties, and legacies of violence shape and inform responses to climate emergencies.
Dr. Malathe Ahmed will shed light on the traditional flood management system used by the community of Tuti Island in Khartoum, Sudan, known as the Taya system. This traditional approach plays a crucial role in minimizing vulnerabilities and enhancing the community’s ability to manage the impacts of climate change, as well as to cope with other crises, including armed conflict. Lucas Belury will focus on the Rio Grande Valley at the southern tip of the Texas-Mexico border. The Rio Grande Valley is a cultural heartland that contains thousands of informal colonia communities vulnerable to flooding. This presentation will explore how colonial communities come together to survive through collaboration, neighborliness, and generosity.
Speakers
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Malathe Ahmed Malathe Ahmed is a postdoctoral researcher at PRODIG UMR in Aubervilliers, France dedicated to exploring the dynamics of power relations that have shaped the spatial structure of Khartoum throughout modern Sudan's history. Her current research centers on how traditional knowledge can be utilised in local contexts for effective flood management systems. Dr. Ahmed has a PhD in Planning and Urban Design from University of Khartoum, Sudan.
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Lucas Belury Lucas Belury is a Doctoral Candidate in the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on flood vulnerability in informal colonia communities in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Partnering with a coalition of community-based, environmental justice non-profits Lucas developed FLUJOS - Flood Justice Utilizing Satellite Observation - which seeks to address flood justice issues in the Texas-Mexico borderlands through the development of community-validated flood maps.