Middle East Studies

Mellon Sawyer Seminar on Displacement | Dams and Displacement

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

3:00pm – 7:00pm

Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute

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A common thread of the Mellon Sawyer seminar is displacement as formative of power relations of inclusion and exclusion that have shaped global histories and had long term effects on multiple environments and forms of subjectivity.

The seminar's second event will focus on the impact of the construction of dams. Large dams represent the most visible ugly face of forced displacement due to development projects by affecting some of the weakest sections of society. By bringing together academics and planners at the same table, this seminar looks at how resettlement of affected groups is planned and what are its long-term socioeconomic implications.

Keynote speaker: Dolores Koenig
Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, American University, Washington D.C.
Paper: "Issues in Development-caused Forced Relocation: The Manantali Dam Thirty Years after Resettlement"

Vincent Roquet
Senior Social Development Specialist, Global Programs Unit, World Bank, Washington D.C.
Paper: "Integrating Social Issues into Hydropower Project Planning: Lessons from Rusumo Fall Project, Rwanda and Tanzania, and La Grande Project, North Quebec"

Joy A. Bilharz
Professor of Anthropology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, State University of New York College at Fredonia
Paper: "It's Still our Home; It's just that we Don't Live Here Anymore: The forced relocation of Allegany Senecas due to the Kinzua dam in Pennsylvania"

Heather Randell
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), University of Maryland, Annapolis, MD
Paper: "Development, Dams, and Displacement in the Amazon: The Case of Brazil's Belo Monte Hydroelectric Complex"

Moderator: Vikramaditya Thakur
Mellow Sawyer Postdoctoral Research Associate, Middle East Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI

This series is funded by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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Click here to see the full program.

Displacement
Workshops, Conferences, Seminars