Courses | Future Water Institute

Interested in water-related social and environmental justice and arts-based research methods?

The MOOC “Arts-based research methods towards water justice”, highlights key aspects of water justice coupled with hands-on experience from a range of powerful arts-based methods such as poetry, cellphilms, murals, fibre arts, photovoice, human-centred design, comics, an online museum, and art exhibits, which are shared by leading researchers and practitioners from Canada, South Africa, and Egypt. Expected learnings are around developing an understanding of the various key aspects of water justice including indigenous law; indigenous and local knowledge; water narratives; water resilient cities; ecological literacy; ocean care; flood and drought resilience; water and sanitation challenges and solutions; inclusive water governance; local water users’ perceptions; and resisting extractive industries. Furthermore, understanding water justice in relation to participants’ contexts, rights, and responsibilities around water; how water policy can be influenced through arts-based methods; the benefits of arts-based methods and research approaches; and overall, designing a context-specific arts-based research project aligned with water justice.

The course is aimed at adult learners in formal (e.g., University) and informal contexts; professors; researchers; practitioners; non-profit staff members; and policymakers. The course will cover 12 modules over 36 hours, with 2-3 hours per module. To receive a digital certificate, users are required to complete all quizzes with a minimum of 80% and submit all 12 module studio assignments.

Sign up and engage in research methods actioned through various art forms and join a community of creative thinkers. This course was made possible through partnerships and funding among the following research groups, and funders: Funding for the MOOC provided by Rhodes University ESRLC; Materials from the course are derived from the Confluency Colloquium, Hosted by the University of Cape Town (UCT)'s Future Water research institute in partnership with the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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The Future Water flagship course has been designed to equip the next generation of critical thinkers to consider Africa’s increasingly complex water challenges.

Dates for 2025: 14 - 25 July 2025

The course challenges participants to consider water in new ways, develop the tools to do so and equip them with the skills to apply their learnings in different contexts. This course adopts an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary (IDTD) approach to examine the complexity of current water crises, trends and conditions, with specific examples from the African continent. While considering water demand, supply and treatment, it addresses the need to derive maximum benefit from water resources while incurring minimum burden and the need to secure ‘new taps’ in a Water Sensitive context.

This course is a core 20-credit course as part of the Civil Engineering water quality masters program, and a 3-day CPD offering is an option.

Enquiries: contact amber.abrams@uct.ac.za

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To see a full list of related courses please visit Civil Engineering website - these will have the most up to date offerings:

https://ebe.uct.ac.za/department-civil-engineering/water-quality-engineering

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Making Waveforms is an outdoor-education-meets-art-activism program championing global water justice hosted by Rhodes University's Environmental Learning Research Centre in collaboration with THE FUTURE WATER INSTITUTE run in 2019. Through experiential learning, demonstrations and a number of field trips (e.g., water sports, riverside soundwalks), participants are asked to explore their relationships with water. They are paired with local Knowledge Keepers and are tasked with building meaningful connections over a period of five weeks, to create short, site-specific videos to raise awareness about the importance of healthy waterways.