I’ve spent the last couple of weeks holed up writing. Partly, this was to prepare for a great workshop on water held this last weekend here at Harvard. Historians, anthropologists, designers, geographers all working out ideas through papers we had circulated. It was great, and provided some very good feedback on my work. Toby Jones gave an exceptionally thoughtful response to a paper I presented and which I will be submitting for publication soon.

On Saturday evening James Wescoat gave a very compelling lecture on issues of sanitation and design, particularly the ways that certain ideas have traveled between the US and India. If you’ve not come across Dr. Wescoat’s work, here is a short interview with him:

At present, I’m working through the first part of the book I’ve tentatively titled Water and no Other. The project has taken some unexpected turns, particularly into the history of geology, which turns out to be a formative dimension of modern water policies in North America. The best part of this turn is getting a chance to examine Rudwick’s great work in Bursting the Limits of Time. At any rate, I think I will have the first 1/3 of the book in a complete draft by the end of May. The next two parts should come a bit more quickly as I’ve already done the research for them. Inevitably, I expect some rabbit-trails, detours and (of course!) summer to weigh in on the progress.

Likely by the end of May, I will also have followed through on my aim of making some sub-pages for the book that provide some background on where the project is headed and the shape it is taking.