PJ Dick Innovation Fund Project Grant: South Asian Urban Climates

South Asian Urban Climates
Nida Rehman, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon Architecture

Aparna Parikh, Assistant Teaching Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies, The Pennsylvania State University

South Asian Urban Climates (SAUC) is a scholarly community and research platform dedicated to critical understandings of the structural, experiential and more-than-human dimensions of changing climates across South Asian cities. South Asia is an important site to examine the impacts of catastrophic climate events such as flooding, heat and drought on social and ecological well-being across the living spectrum. While dominant responses focus on large-scale mitigation and adaptation, there is limited attention to ongoing colonial histories, uneven development and caste, class and gender politics that shape the ability of individuals and communities to adapt, live with or rework urban environments. Established by Nida Rehman and Aparna Parikh in 2019, SAUC has provided an interdisciplinary space amongst urban scholars, architects, planners and artists to facilitate dialogue on these challenges and the possibilities of urban climates in the region. We have done so through workshops, collaborative writing, case study development and public events which are curated on our digital platform. In the next stage of the project, we aim to build on these initiatives to advance collaborative research and dialogue, establish mentorship networks, and set up partnerships with research centers and other collectives in South Asia and the global North. The need to foster solidarities across fraught geopolitical boundaries in South Asia is crucial given the shared histories of climate, urbanization and uneven development, to understand and counter the effects of the climate present – and to do so by also working against the uneven geographies of knowledge building.

Image: Nida Rehman, 2011.