Faculty Friday: Dr. Michael Tiboris and Hydropolitics

Thanks to Senior Team Harris Ambassador, Tiffany Kwak (MPP 18), for this blog post on her Hydropolitics class! 

For the first installment of Faculty Friday, I am excited to highlight one of my classes this quarter - Hydropolitics: Water Policy and Conflict with Dr. Michael Tiboris. If you are able to join us at Harris for a campus visit this autumn quarter, Hydropolitics is the campus visit class that is offered on Thursday mornings at 10:30 am.

Dr. Tiboris is a Global Water Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs whose research focuses on global water resource stability and its implications on foreign policy. We began the quarter discussing key philosophical underpinnings behind water as a right and as a unique natural resource. In the coming weeks, we will be delving deep into sectoral conflict (water vs. food vs. energy), water’s influence on geopolitics, cross-scale and sub-state water conflict, development disputes, and human migration.

Every week, we also focus our discussion around county-specific case studies. The case study we read for class this week was on water privatization in Bolivia. This particular case study focused on water as a contested resource by different groups, and how different groups (the public vs. the state vs. third-party organization) may lay claim to water resources. It offered new perspectives on the complexities of water politics that surprised many of us in class.

I was drawn to this course for a couple of different reasons. Knowing nothing about water policy and conflict, I sought to gain a broad knowledge of the history of water politics from diverse perspectives. Additionally, I was deeply concerned by news of water crises here in the U.S. and around the world; I wanted to break down the root causes of water crises in different regions to be a better future policy maker.

I hope this offered an insightful glimpse into Hydropolitics and piqued your interest in finding out more about the different types of classes offered here at Harris! Stay tuned for more Faculty Friday posts to come.