Rachel Havrelock, founder and director of the UIC Freshwater Lab, will give the 2020 Jill S. Harris Memorial Lecture titled "Freshwater Stories: Optics, Governance, and Adaptation around the Great Lakes" on Monday, March 9, 2020, 4:00-5:30 PM Rackham Building, East Conference Room, 4th floor, 915 E. Washington St. (Note: This is the correct location. Previous announcements listed the incorrect location.)

"Freshwater Stories" is also the keynote lecture for Humanities Week 2020 and part of the Winter 2020 LSA Great Lakes Theme Semester: Lake Effects.

About "Freshwater Stories": There is a plausible bright future for communities in the Great Lakes basin. Holding over 20% of the world’s fresh water, the much-maligned Rust Belt could transform into the Water Belt marked by innovation in agriculture and production and welcoming to waves of climate migrants. Yet no framework of regulation, governance, or funding currently exists to ensure such outcomes. Instead public subsidy of extractive and polluting corporations persists. Along with lax enforcement of regulation, there are no mechanisms to deal with agricultural runoff, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. How to get from here to the Water Belt?

Rachel Havrelock’s work shows how the necessary knowledge about water systems resides at the local level where community members struggle with particular forms of privatization, extraction, and pollution. Not only do stories about these contests over water illuminate global processes, but they also chart a course forward. Reflecting on stories she has collected across the Great Lakes basin, Havrelock will share prominent ideas about life around the remarkable freshwater seas.

About the Jill S. Harris Memorial Lecture: The Jill S. Harris Memorial Endowment was established in 1985 by Roger and Meredith Harris, Jill’s parents, her grandparents Allan and Norma Harris, and friends. The fund was established in memory of Jill, a resident of Chicago and undergraduate student at U-M who passed away due to injuries from an auto accident.The fund brings a distinguished visitor to campus each year who will appeal to undergraduates interested in the humanities and the arts. The visitor may either be a fellow of the institute for an extended period of time or invited for a few days to present the annual lecture.The visiting fellow will usually interact with undergraduates, informally and through visits to classes or by other means by which exchanges with undergraduates may be promoted. Past Jill S. Harris Memorial Lectures.