Keynote Speakers

Dr. Katie Meehan

Political ecologist and environmental geographer

Professor of Environmental Justice, co-Director of King’s Water Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom

Dr Katie Meehan is political ecologist and environmental geographer at King's College London, and co-author of the book Water: A Critical Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023). For nearly two decades, Meehan has worked at the frontlines of research on household water insecurity, first in Mexico, now in the USA, Spain, Ireland, and Romania. Meehan earned graduate degrees from the University of Arizona and University of Oxford and her research has won awards and fellowships from UKRI, the US National Science Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, NOAA, and the Social Science Research Council. Prior to academic life, Meehan worked in rural community development as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Belize and Guatemala. She currently leads the Plumbing Poverty project, a five-year research study investigating the emergence of insecure water access and shut-offs in the USA and Europe, supported by UKRI and the European Research Council.

Water Equity and Shared Responsibility:
Intersectional Perspectives from Research and Practice

This panel brings together diverse voices to examine how the global water crisis does not affect all communities equally. It explores how intersections of gender, race, class, and other social factors shape unequal access to safe drinking water, sanitation, health, and safety. These issues will be examined through both global and Canadian perspectives. Panellists will also share challenges and successes from conducting research on sensitive and equity-focused topics in water research.

Featuring:

Susan Elliott

Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management and University Research Chair in Medical Geography, University of Waterloo

Alexa Bennett

PhD Candidate, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo

Abraham Nunbogu