Anshul Sharma

Graduate Students from Water Seminar (Geography 5100) “The politics of water” present together at CU WASH Symposium 2026

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:48:51 +0000

Graduate Students from Water Seminar (Geography 5100) “The politics of water” present together at CU WASH Symposium 2026 Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 04/28/2026 - 09:48

In Professor Truelove’s Fall 2025 graduate water seminar, GEOG 5100: The Politics of Water, students (Em Wright, Laine Sullivan, Anshul Sharma, Marc Sailer, Zach Schaad), spanning social, physical, and engineering sciences engaged with hydrosocial approaches to understand some of the world’s most pressing water challenges. During the course of the seminar, students from differing disciplines began reflecting on their own lived experiences of water as not simply being something tied to only the physical, infrastructural, or technical, but also the social, cultural, political, and economic – what social scientists often refer to as “socio-natural.” Further, students critically considered how one’s own disciplinary silo could often limit the ways we see, approach, know, and seek to address global water challenges. For example, dominant approaches to pervasive water problems often focus on improving water access and security through technocratic and engineering fixes that are widely viewed as apolitical. At the same time, academic analyses often view water problems through a singular disciplinary lens with limited success, which also simultaneously curbs the scope of how we approach water’s complex challenges. At the conclusion of the course, students had offered such a high degree of personal, professional, and disciplinary reflection on the need to adopt a transdisciplinary approach that recognizes water’s hydro-social nature that the entire class joined together with the aim to continue to work together despite the semester ending. On the last day of the semester, the class agreed to put transdisciplinary thinking into practice by working across students’ own disciplinary orientations and drawing on the collective learning from the semester to co-author and co-present a think piece on the possibilities and imperatives of interdisciplinary approaches to global water challenges.

As a result, the following semester the entire class met again regularly. This time it was not for credit, but to collaborate and be mentored by Professor Truelove in thinking through a framework for transdisciplinary approaches to water challenges and justice, presenting at the CU 2026 Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Symposium, as well as working on a co-authored article for publication. In the collective work of graduate students from Geography, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and the Mortensen Center for Global Engineering, the CU WASH Symposium presentation (pictured below) entailed the students and Professor Truelove sharing the stage to engage a predominately engineering audience on how transdisciplinary approaches could advance water justice. The group presented and answered audience questions for a total of 30 minutes. The presentation advocated for an approach that attends to 1) the “humanness” of water systems, 2) differing ways of knowing and valuing water, 3) expanding how we understand and engage the right to water, and 4) centering communities’ and indigenous experiences’ of water in pursuing climate justice in order to achieve greater water equity and justice globally.

The team is eagerly continuing the work into the summer through their co-authored think piece around similar themes.

From left to right: Em Wright, Anshul Sharma, Yaffa Truelove, Marc Sailer, Laine Sullivan, Zach Schaad

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Anshul Rai Sharma: Navigating Housing Precarity in Bengaluru: Insights from Fieldwork

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:38:01 +0000

Anshul Rai Sharma: Navigating Housing Precarity in Bengaluru: Insights from Fieldwork Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 13:38

Anshul Rai Sharma is a PhD student in the Department of Geography advised by Yaffa Truelove. His research follows how people navigate precarious housing conditions in one of India's fastest-growing cities, Bengaluru.

Supported by the John Pitlick Fieldwork Grant, he conducted preliminary fieldwork in informal settlements and state-led resettlement sites of the city. His days were spent moving between resettlement colonies, informal settlements and city municipality offices, speaking with residents, activists, and bureaucrats.

What emerged is a complex landscape of housing, where stability exists on a spectrum, some households have ownership documents, others hold possession certificates, while many navigate daily life with no formal claims to their homes. This gradation of security shapes everything, from stable access to water to electricity connections, from children's school enrollment to families' long-term aspirations.

In a resettlement colony on Bengaluru's periphery, where concrete apartment blocks house displaced communities (Figure 1), residents shared how unstable water and electricity affected their lives, along with lack of ownership documents to their allotted housing units.

Figure 1: Among the resettlement sites of Bengaluru, with unstable water and electricity.

Young people in these settlements became key interlocutors (Figure 2), offering perspectives on how housing precarity, and its attendant exclusions, shapes everyday life, aspirations and educational and professional trajectories.

Figure 2: Interacting with young people in the settlements, sharing about research.

During festival celebrations (Figure 3), the vibrancy of community life stood out, in contrast to material deprivations, a reminder that these spaces are homes, not just research sites. This is a critical part of Anshul’s research, to present the informal settlements as living, agentive spaces as opposed to being passive victims of urbanisation. These gatherings, full of laughter and song, offered glimpses into the affective and creative dimensions of urban life that are often missed in ‘urban survival’ narratives.

Figure 3: Celebrating festivities in the settlements.

A key moment in the summer was his involvement in the “Bengaluru Waterscapes” workshop (Figure 4), a collaborative effort by local organizations and researchers to address the city’s mounting water crises. These discussions were important in understanding of how environmental stress intersects with questions of housing and social justice.

Figure 4: Workshop on Bengaluru's waterscapes, led by MOD for city organizations to find solutions to water issues in the city's informal settlements.

Emerging from these experiences is a nuanced understanding of Bengaluru’s expansive housing crisis. It is also a social crisis, since settlements are not static or homogenous, they exist on a spectrum of recognition which shaped by caste and religion. Caste, in particular, remains a decisive force in determining who can claim land, who receives services, and who remains excluded from the geography of the “world-class” city. Some of these emerging issues, and calls to address them were featured in Bengaluru’s local new outlet: https://citizenmatters.in/housing-electricity-sulikunte-residents-eviction-ejipura-neglect/

Anshul’s forthcoming research will build on these preliminary findings, combining ethnography, archival work, and collaborative documentation to understand the crisis of housing and social justice in India’s IT Hub city of Bengaluru.

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Recipients of the Spring 2025 John Pitlick Field Research Award

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 21:37:13 +0000

Recipients of the Spring 2025 John Pitlick Field Research Award Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 04/18/2025 - 15:37

Spring 2025 Pitlick Award Recipients: Annika Hirmke, Prakriti Mukerjee, Esmee Mulder, Holly Roth, Anshul Sharma, Nic Tarasewicz, and Rahila Yilangai

This award will be used to provide support to graduate students for field research in the Geography Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Funds will be used to cover field research-related expenses, including, but not limited to travel to and from the field area, reimbursable living expenses while in the field, costs associated with workshops, or specialized training courses, field equipment, and other costs associated with carrying out the field research.

Spring 2025 Recipients:

This award will be used to provide support to graduate students for field research in the Geography Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

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Welcome to Our Fall 2024 Graduate Students

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:18:08 +0000

Welcome to Our Fall 2024 Graduate Students Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/29/2024 - 09:18

Please join us in welcoming our incoming graduates for Fall 2024!

Fall 2024 Graduate Student Group Photo - Back row: Colin Gilbert, Lauren Thomas, Maren Roeske, Virgil Alfred, Matthew Woodland, Lars Schwaebe, Tyler McIntosh - Middle row: Danyan Leng, Hayes Hart-Thompson, Sydney Carr, Emma Tyrrell, Maddy Rich, Anshul Sharma - Front row: Esmee Mulder, Zhe Lin, Yangchengsi Zhang, Yanxiao Liu, Bella Kamplain

Back row: Colin Gilbert, Lauren Thomas, Maren Roeske, Virgil Alfred, Matthew Woodland, Lars Schwaebe, Tyler McIntosh

Middle row: Danyan Leng, Hayes Hart-Thompson, Sydney Carr, Emma Tyrrell, Maddy Rich, Anshul Sharma

Front row: Esmee Mulder, Zhe Lin, Yangchengsi Zhang, Yanxiao Liu, Bella Kamplain

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