Doha, Qatar: The international conference of “Water Ways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics” concluded on Tuesday, February 20, 2024. The conference was organized by the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in cooperation with Qatar Museums and Qatar’s newest visual arts festival, “Rubaiyat Qatar".
The conference presented alternative critical approaches and new critical perspectives on the subject of water.
The last day of the conference witnessed four diverse sessions. The first session focused on the axis of Palestinian waters, where Yasmin Qaadan, a PhD student in the doctoral program of social sciences at Birzeit University, discussed a research paper titled "Stargazed Water: Tracing Life ina Palestinian Colonized Village at the Era of Anthropocene” Water as a Source of Conflict: Tracing Life in a Palestinian Village Colonized in the Anthropocene Era."
Then, Mansour Nasasra, a Palestinian academic and researcher, addressed the topic "Bir Al-Saba’ and its Networking with Palestinian Coastal Cities and Villages" followed by a discussion on "Gates of the Sea of Gaza: An Attempt at Water Sociology" presented by researcher Majd Abu Amer.
As for the second session, it delved into the topic of Arabian Gulf waters, opening with a research paper on "Dhows as Magical Infrastructure: Reinscribing the Occult in the Indian Ocean" presented by Ahmed Ya'qub Al-Mazmi, a PhD student in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Princeton University. In addition to the discussion titled “The Sea and the Desert: Rahma Bin Jaber and the Dialectics of Piracy and Maritime Influence”.
While the third session titled "The Art of Water", had three different presentations including a study on "Boalis of Hyderabad: Water Epistemologies and Aesthetics of the Deccan," presented by researcher Sneha Parthasarathy, a presentation by artist and curator Shtuni Arlinda on "Waterlines: Redrawing Our Relationship with Water," and a final research paper by Singaporean artist Charles Yi Young Lim on "The Water State".
Participants of the conference concluded that "Water has always been a subject of economic, political, geographical, and cultural discussion, and it has been used in parallel in a variety of artistic, literary, and cinematic projects. However, how it was seen before, which was considered unquestionable and fixed, is no longer viewed as limited and defined based on the imaginary site. Also, the intersections between climate change, capitalism, new colonialism, global trade systems, the emergence of the Anthropocene, and other factors ultimately prompted many artists and scientists to search for alternative concepts of the role of water and its essential relationship with life, exploring a better future."
The conference that began on February 18 at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies saw participation of about 35 researchers from several Arab and foreign countries.
The participants focused in their interventions and studies on alternative approaches to discussing the subject of water, through redefining and exploring new perspectives on the importance of water in our world, and engaging in deep discussions focusing on the study of water from various angles and specialties.
