Nikhil Anand is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. He studies cities, read through the lives of urban water. Having previously studied urban water infrastructures, Nikhil’s new work attends to the ways in which urban rivers and seas are key sites for the making and management of social difference, both in the United States and India. As part of this project, he is currently conducting fieldwork in The Urban Sea in Mumbai, which explores the new imaginaries and practices of planners, fishers and scientists working in the climate changed seas of Mumbai. Dr. Anand has a Masters in Environmental Science from Yale University and a PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University.
Pranjal Deekshit is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Water Policy, Regulation, and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. His research has focused on the privatization of water services, specifically on urban water PPPs. He led the designing of the new curriculum for the Master’s Program in Water Policy and Governance at TISS. Pranjal has over 10 years experience in policy research and advocacy. He has worked on issues of delivery and management of water and sanitation services and livelihood issues in tribal communities in India. He holds a MA in Economics from the University of Pune and is currently finishing his PhD in water policy from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Lalitha Kamath is an urbanist who teaches at the Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Trained as an urban planner, her first book was a co-edited volume that focused on a critical exploration of emerging discourses and practices of “citizen participation” that have become part of urban governance reforms in India. Subsequent work has focused on unpacking the politics and uneven impacts of urban reform and infrastructure projects. This has led to deeper inquiry into the violence of becoming urban in the global south. As part of this deeper engagement, she is engaged in ethnographic study of a fishing village on Mumbai’s east coast to understand changing conceptions of habitation and value at the water’s edge.
Bethany Wiggin is Associate Professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2003, she has been a faculty member of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania where she is the Founding Director of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities. Her books and essays explore histories of migration, language and cultural translation since the Columbian exchange on both sides of the Atlantic world. Her work aims to connect with audiences beyond the academy and has been featured on (selections) the PBS Newshour, CBS Evening News, CNN, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Vice, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Science Friday, Die Tagesschau, Le Monde. Ongoing collaborative, public projects include: Data Refuge, An Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene, and the Schuylkill River and Urban Waters Research Corps. In December 2017, the Union of Concerned Scientists honored her with their Science Defender award.
MUMBAI BASED:
Aditi Kelshekar is a full-time Master’s student of Urban policy and Governance at the school of Habitat studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. With a keen interest in the field of development, focussed in the urban sector, as a part of the Master’s course, she has worked on small projects and field research projects like ‘Impact of Smart Cities Mission- Pune on the street vendors and other stakeholders’ and ‘Neighbourhood Analysis and Planning’. The Master’s Programme culminates into a final research project, for which Aditi will be looking at Sanitation in Mumbai, closely and will study the Slum Sanitation Programme which enables community participation, in the process of managing toilets blocks in the slums, constructed by the Municipal corporation. As a part of this research project, the challenges in implementation of the Programme as well as how the toilet blocks are being (or not being) maintained,10 years after its construction, will be studied. The study is also aimed at critically examining the contribution of this programme in the sanitation chain and enquiring into the presence or absence of appropriate treatment and disposal facilities, and thus the impact. Since community participation is key to this programme, there will be a focus on understanding the various customizations that community groups have brought in, within their toilet blocks, to resolve problems specific to their toilet blocks or to add additional features to the toilet block, to maximise the benefits to the community. Aditi has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Media from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and a Diploma in Child Rights and Child Protection from Mumbai University. She has worked as a research associate with HaqDarshak empowerment Solutions, which is a start-up with a mobile app platform, that connects citizens to the government schemes they are eligible for and equips them with all the relevant information required to apply for the benefits of the scheme. She has been part of MentorMe India, wherein she was responsible for mentoring a 12 year old girl through a period of one year. As a part of internship projects she has travelled through rural Bihar, small towns of Gujarat and lived and worked in tribal- Naxal affected villages of Chattisgarh with almost no electricity or mobile network. Her views, beliefs and life goals are strongly shaped by work experiences in such remote areas and amidst the several developmental issues that exist in rural as well as urban India.
Rupakshi S. Mathur is a Masters student of Water Policy and Governance at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has studied varied aspects of water in urban, rural and international spaces on the lines of policymaking regarding drinking water, sanitation and pollution with a socio-scientific approach. She completed her schooling in Alwar, Rajasthan and further pursued graduation in Geography from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi. As a geographer, she has connected her previous knowledge with this current course by studying groundwater, surface water and water conflicts. As a part of the project, she has undertaken an actor-oriented study tracing the degradation of canals in Alappuzha, Kerala.
Vidhy Shethna is pursuing post graduation in Urban policy and governance along so as to work on issues addressing the urban sector. Her research on Kankaria Lakefront, Ahmedabad is a purposeful attempt on conceptualising the contemporary urban condition. Through the lens of classic example of ‘urban waterfronts’, the effort will be to understand the issues surrounding, often neglected but of significant importance, ‘Urban Waterfront developments’. The paper will emphasise on myriad influences of policy formation and implementation, planning decisions, infrastructure building, investment and ownership decision trade-off, public engagement and other factors have on social and ecological process that occur around the urban waterfront. Vidhy has received her bachelors in Economics from St.Xavier’s College, Mumbai where she also got the opportunity to work with an NGO working for the homeless community of South Mumbai. Her past experience has helped her develop insights about the exclusions of the urban poor in Mumbai.
Simran Sumbre is a student of Masters in Water Policy and Governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is a Political Science graduate from Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai University. Her interest in public policy and advocacy inspired her to pursue her masters in policy and governance in the water sector. During her internship at the Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India, Simran worked on the issue of rising conflicts due to increasing reallocation from the Surya Irrigation Project in Palghar district of Maharashtra. The study aimed to bring together a multi-stakeholder perspective regarding the increasing reallocation from irrigation purposes to non-irrigational uses. She is currently working on a project that captures and analyses the local discourse of right to water in Mumbai through the lens of the social structure, its influence and limits.
Anushri Tiwari is an Urban Planner by profession from CEPT University, and is currently a Master’s student of Urban Policy and Governance at Tata Institute of Social Science. Her research project revolves around the Mithi River in Mumbai. This is the very same river which has been demonised as the culprit of the recurring deluge that occurs in the city of Mumbai every year. She aims to go beyond normalized assumptions that we can manage natural resources through narrow technical and unsustainable development practices. For her thesis, she will uncover the different perspectives with
which the Mithi River is viewed by different institutions like the urban development authority, Pollution Control Board, Environment Department of the Municipality and others. Through this work, she envisions contributing to the fields of Urban Planning and Governance. Anushri is also interested in data analysis and representation wherein as she puts it “every data has some story to convey.” Through data, she hopes to also learn and convey the unseen and unheard stories of nature.
Salman Zaheer is pursuing Master’s in Water Policy and Governance at Tata Institute of Social sciences, Mumbai. He is inclined towards understanding the nature and lifestyle of the city of Mumbai through the lens of water. He is focusing on a people’s centred approach to glean in the parochial aspects of the lifesaving resource and its myriad contestations in the metropolis bursting at its seams. As part of this research, he is engaged in data collection to know perspectives of Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting among different stakeholders in Mumbai.
PHILADELPHIA BASED:
Tathagat Bhatia is a sophomore from Lucknow, India. He came to Penn entirely unsure about his major but now feels most comfortable navigating through and learning about environmental history and conservation. A research assistant in the History of Science department over the summer, Tathagat worked to better understand the fascinating history of geomorphology in the mid 20th century. He hopes to learn more about and give voice to some of the lesser talked about but decidedly vital questions related to toxicity in urban waterscapes during the course of his research as a Rising Water Fellow.
Samantha Friskey is a junior in the College from Bowie, Maryland studying English and economics. She discovered sustainability and environmentalism through PennGreen, a pre-orientation program for freshmen; ever since, she has been an active member of the environmental community at Penn, interning with Penn’s Sustainability Office and becoming the RA of Eco-House, Harnwell’s environmentally-themed residential program. Samantha was recently recognized by United Nations Academic Impact and Millennium Campus Network as a Millennium Fellow for her commitment to advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Throughthe Rising Waters fellowship, she will consider the Philadelphia public art piece “Sleeping Woman” by poet Stephen Berg and visual artist Tom Chimes as a case study for non-human geo-writing in the Anthropocene, researching the ways in which art from Philadelphia and Mumbai document and honor their waterways.
Fiona Jensen-Hitch is a senior from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is studying Anthropology and English (with a concentration in Creative Writing), and minoring in Archaeological Science. On campus she can usually be found at the Penn Museum, a wonderful building where she spends far too much time. Through the Rising Waters Fellowship, she is working on a project centered around an ecopoetical interpretation of the archival, historical, and indigenous records of Philadelphia’s water supply system.
Rose Nagele is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studies Biology and Creative Writing. With experience in biological research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and journalism at FactCheck.org and the Penn Science Journal, she is eager to incorporate scientific perspectives into broader dialogues about society, culture, and the environment. This past summer as a student researcher in the sink|float|spill|flow Group and a participant in the On-Water-Intensive, Rose created a digital map exploring the influence of the Delaware River in the geophysical, economic, and social evolution of Tinicum Township. She plans to continue this line of inquiry in her Rising Waters project on the legacy of the Philadelphia naval base in a climate changed city.
Graduate Fellows:
Martin Premoli is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at University of Pennsylvania. His studies are centered on contemporary global anglophone and postcolonial literature. Questions of empire, indigeneity, and environmentalism engage him as a scholar. He holds an MA in English from University of Virginia and has published for Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies.
Luna Sarti is a Ph.D. student in the Italian Studies program at the University of
Pennsylvania. Her current research focuses on the shifting cultures and practices of water that bound the Arno river in Tuscany, thus shaping not only the Tuscan landscape but also its history and literature. Interested in exploring how histories of water and humans intersect, she spends a lot of time thinking through and with rivers.
RWM 