Beyond Borders: Global Histories of Transboundary Rivers

International Online Workshop

University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
19–20 November 2026

Organised by the Centre for Economic and Social History and Department of History at the University of Ostrava.

All programme times are Central European Time (CET/UTC+1).

Thursday, 19 November
09:00–09:15
Welcome and workshop framing
 
Viktor Pál, University of Ostrava, Czech Republich
Transboundary Rivers in Global and Interdisciplinary History
A brief introduction to the workshop’s questions, interdisciplinary approach and relationship to the ETRECE project.
09:15–11:15
Panel I
 
Making Rivers Legible: Knowledge, Infrastructure and Waterscape Transformation
  • Jinguo Liu, Tsinghua University, China / Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany
    Making a Global Yellow River: Transnational Surveys, Multiple Knowledge Systems, and River Governance in Late Qing China
  • Mahbuba Akter Pranti, Jannatul Afrin Nimme and Md. Mehedi Hasan Mithu, World University of Bangladesh, Bangladesh
    Railway Infrastructure and the Shift of Kaunia Bazar along the Teesta River, 1901–2026: A Case Study of Rangpur, Bangladesh
  • Karel Šíma, Jiří Janáč and Jakub Vrba, Charles University and the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
    Persisting Peripherality in a Transnational Waterscape: Environmental Interventions, Border Regimes, and Rural Modernity along the Dyje/Thaya River, 1890s–1970s
Local starting times: Bangladesh 14:15; China 16:15; Czech Republic 09:15.
11:15–14:00
Break
14:00–16:00
Panel II
 
Partition, Hydraulic Development and South Asian River Politics
  • Anubha Anushree, University of Delhi, India
    Hydraulic Pathologies: Infrastructure, Control, and the Kosi River, 1845–1960
  • Muhammad Faisal, Government Graduate College Shakargarh, Pakistan
    South Asian Transboundary River Basins in the Postcolonial Era: Understanding Challenges, Navigating Regional Water Dialogue and the Way Forward
  • Iqbal Akhtar, Florida International University, USA
    Two Rivers, One Water: Partitioned Sacred Riverscapes and the Making of a Hydro-Diplomatic Border in Punjab, 1947–1960
Local starting times: Florida 08:00; Pakistan 18:00; India 18:30.
16:00–18:00
Break
18:00–20:00
Panel III
 
Communities, Water Ontologies and Uneven Borderlands
  • Md. Mamun Miah, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA
    The Teesta River: A Tale of Human Suffering from Riverbank Erosion and Mismanagement
  • Ramya Swayamprakash, Grand Valley State University, USA
    What Is a Border on Water? Infrastructure and Administrative Afterlives from the Detroit River
  • Allison Rojas-Correal, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
    Rethinking Transboundary Rivers: Water Ontologies in the Amazonian Triple Border
Local starting times: Hawaii 07:00; Colombia 12:00; Michigan 12:00.
 
Friday, 20 November
12:30–14:30
Panel IV
 
Mobility, Environmental Knowledge and Border Ecologies
  • Francis Newman, Harvard University, USA
    • Upstream, Downstream: Interpreting, Cultivating, and Transforming Rivers in Qing Taiwan
  • Aoife O’Leary McNeice, University of Galway, Ireland
    The River Erne and the Irish Border Biome
  • Kamil Adeyemi Hamzah, Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Nigeria
    Flowing Histories of Mobility: West African Waterways and Transnational Connections in Global Perspective, 1975–2019
Local starting times: US Eastern Time 06:30; Ireland 11:30; Nigeria 12:30.
14:30–14:45
Break
14:45–17:00
Panel V
 
Law, Institutions and the Politics of Transboundary Governance
  • Axel David Murillo Paredes, University of Lleida, Spain / Universidad Externado de Colombia, Colombia
    The Relationship between River-Basin Management and Groundwater Governance: The Ebro Basin
  • Viktor Pál, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
    From Border Waters to Transboundary Governance: Environmental Knowledge and Cooperation on the Cold War Danube
  • Maria Cristina Galmarini, William & Mary, USA
    Managing Transboundary Waters in Soviet Azerbaijan: Irrigation and Flooding across Azerbaijani Borders from Stalin to Khrushchev
  • Ángela Suárez Collado, University of Salamanca, Spain / Princeton University, USA
    Power, Conflict and Cooperation across Borders: A Comparative Hydropolitics of the Jordan, Orontes and Litani River Basins
Local starting times: US Eastern Time 08:45; Spain and Central Europe 14:45; Finland 15:45.
17:00–17:15
Break
17:15–18:15
Concluding Roundtable
 
Beyond Borders: New Directions in the Global History of Transboundary Rivers
The roundtable will address:
  • how transboundary rivers should be conceptualised historically;
  • connections between material river processes and political borders;
  • the relationship between infrastructure, knowledge and sovereignty;
  • the possibilities and limitations of global comparison;
  • future publications, networks and collaborative research.
Local starting times: US Eastern Time and Colombia 11:15; Ireland 16:15; Central Europe and Nigeria 17:15; Pakistan 21:15; India 21:45; Bangladesh 22:15; China 00:15.

Presentation and discussion format

  • 20 minutes for each presentation;
  • approximately 10 minutes of immediate questions for each paper;
  • approximately 20 minutes of comparative panel discussion.

The workshop is supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant ‘An Environmental History of Transboundary Rivers in Cold War East-Central Europe’ (ETRECE), project No. 24-11526S.


Updated: 13. 10. 2026