Delaware Valley College
October 11-12, 2012

We are pleased to host our second Precarious Alliance Symposium titled The Ethics of Water—everything flows from here.  This interdisciplinary symposium aims to bring together academics, educators, business leaders, environmental designers, policy makers, environmental advocates, planners, engineers, attorneys and farmers to discuss issues of sustainability and regeneration. The 2012 event explores the ethics of water, looking at the uses and abuses of water systems, technology to improve our stewardship of those water supplies, as well as our relationship to this life sustaining resource.  How can we meet our needs today without compromising the ability of future generations and other non-human communities to meet their own needs?

Using the ethics of water as its organizing principle, the symposium will address three distinct, though interrelated tracks: The Tap and Technology; The Earth; and the Idea.

Proposals for each track could include but are not limited to the following themes:

1. The Tap and Technology: New technologies for water treatment; condition of and challenges facing current public water facilities; how water is made safe to drink; waste water recovery; desalinization; membrane technologies; international perspectives on public access to potable water sources and technologies for water treatment.
2. The Earth: Water and the Marcellus Shale; effects of water pollution; habitat quality and restoration; environmental remediation and stewardship; invasive species; land-use policy and climate change
3. The Idea: Just as water is essential to terrestrial life and vital to civilization, it flows into and through every imaginable human discourse and discipline. Appropriately fluid and capable of filling any form, this track will be devoted to the meaning of water: water as life; water as rite; water as spirit; water as myth; water as cause; water as metaphor. Other relevant topics could include: water and human rights; water and agency; the appropriation of water as a symbol of health, purity, etc. to promote environmental and corporate causes; the question of water’s capacity for consciousness, memory, rights.

We invite the submission of proposals of papers, panels, workshops, roundtables and poster sessions (no larger than 36” x 48”) to share perspectives on the above topics.  For poster sessions and papers please send abstracts of no more than 250 words along with a brief biography (including affiliation and specialization).  For themed panels, workshops and roundtables (1 hour) please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words describing the purpose of the session, abstracts for each of the individual contributors along with a brief biography.  Proposals should be submitted to Tanya Casas at tanya.casas@delval.edu.  The deadline for submission of proposals has been EXTENDED TO JUNE 15, 2012. Participants will be notified before July 1st.

Along with papers, panels, workshops, roundtables and interactive poster sessions, the conference will include three keynotes addresses by Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst; Peter Thum, founder of Ethos Water and the non-profit organization Giving Water; and Maude Barlow, water activist, co-founder of the Blue Planet Project and a former Senior Advisor on Water for the United Nations General Assembly.  Other events include a film screening, a live concert organized around the theme of water, and a student organized interactive water exhibit.

Located in Doylestown, Pa., in the heart of Bucks County, Delaware Valley College is a comprehensive four-year institution of higher learning with more than 1,600 men and women enrolled full time in more than 42 academic programs, ranging from business administration, computer and business information systems and secondary education to agricultural, biological and physical sciences.