By Sarah Hamilton, Associate Professor, University of Bergen
What can the history of groundwater teach us about humanity’s relationships with water, and our understandings of the natural world? Today’s talk will plumb the historical depths of large-scale groundwater exploitation, exploring scientific, legal, and popular imaginaries of the underground and the production of both knowledge and ignorance associated with this pivotal resource. Through the case study of Australia’s Great Artesian Basin, it will underscore the implications of groundwater’s unique physical attributes for its study and management.
Sarah Hamilton (she/her) works at the intersection of environmental history and science and technology studies, with a special interest in modern water history. Her first book, Cultivating Nature: The Conservation of a Valencian Working Landscape, won the Turku Book Prize from the European Society for Environmental History and the Rachel Carson Center.