Watery Pasts, Presents and Futures: Centre for Water Cultures Conference 25

Each year, the Leverhulme Centre for Water Cultures hosts a student-led conference showcasing the groundbreaking research being conducted by our PhD students. We also welcome attendees from the other Universities, as well as the heritage, environmental, energy and conservation sectors. The theme for 2025 is watery pasts, presents and futures: the programme will feature a range of exciting presentations, workshops and activies that explore how water intertwines with our everyday lives in ordinary and extraordinary ways. The event will also have two keynote speakers, poster presentations, creative activities and lunch will be provided for all registered attendees.

Full agenda TBC.

Keynote speakers

- University of Glasgow: Mirna's research focuses on the literary, cinematic and visual representations of rivers, focusing on how creative interpretations of waterscapes, specifically rivers and lakes, contribute to our understanding of complex social transformations and contentious issues. Two of her recently published articles are "'Neither here, nor there:' riverscapes in films on migration", published in Modern Languages Open (2025), and "Disturbed Waters and Homerivers: Representations of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Postwar Riverscapes" (Nationalities Papers, 2025).
- University of Cardiff: Kate's research and writing explores the relationships between everyday practices of memory and heritage, mobility and place, and future imaginaries and the enduring legacies of colonialism, which she has engaged with through ethnographic research. Underpinning her work are the themes of postcolonialism, heritage, post-industrial communities, as well as an interest in qualitative methods, particularly ethnographic, mobile and multimodal methods (soundwalks, visual methods).

She has co-authored several publications around the subjects of swimming and water cultures, including "'Clean and safe’?: Swimming ethically in compromised times and polluted places", Bobbing in the park: wild swimming, conviviality and belonging, and "Living with Water: everyday encounters and liquid connections".

About the Centre

Based at the University of Hull, the Leverhulme Centre for Water Cultures pioneers the burgeoning field of the green-blue humanities, taking a transhistorical, interdisciplinary approach to understanding humanity’s relationship with water. Our doctoral researchers investigate global contemporary issues raised by living with and without water, how water crises have been handled historically, and what the representation of water in the arts reveals about water’s pervasive yet changing influence on human life.

Location

The conference will take place in person in the Kingsley Suite of the Canham Turner Building - University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull. Postcode: HU6 7RX. Information on how to get to the University of Hull Campus by road or public transport can be found on the University website.

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