老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Cape Town, South Africa

Summary:
Amber is interested in working to inform citizens to enable them to feel confident in their expertise as people who value water. She does this through workshops, public engagements, and inviting people to voice their own forms of knowledge and expertise. Amber works in a participatory fashion to understand different ways in which people make use of, value and innovate around water. She is interested in the ways in which water fosters relationships and connections across space and time. At the same time, she is keen to work with people to see how nature-based interventions impact on daily lives. Amber's aim for the future is to continue to grow and develop a cohort of social scientists at the Future Water Institute that challenge, collaborate and push technical water scientists to consider the social, political, relational and emotional aspects of their work.

Research:
Amber Abrams has over 25 years of experience working in academia, for government and the private sector in the fields of public health, research science at the intersection of humans and environment, and in social engagement translating research science for publics in South Africa. Abrams is a Senior Research Officer at Future Water, a transdisciplinary research institute at the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Cape Town, based in the Department of Civil Engineering.  Prior to taking up this position, Amber was a Carnegie DEAL Junior Research Fellow, and postdoctoral fellow at FW since 2018. Before that as a PhD research fellow/graduate teacher at the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Kent, Canterbury UK, Abrams’ research focused on northern Limpopo (South Africa), examining the impacts of a protected natural area on local residents. Amber’s training is in medical/environmental anthropology and public health, and prior to undertaking her PhD research, she was a senior scientist at the South African Medical Research Council. Amber’s recent work spans a number of areas including experimenting with research methods around water (arts-based and embodied methods), the development of a Health Vulnerability indicators frameworks for Extreme Weather Events in Southern Africa; hosting an online ‘Museum of watery relations’; engaged and interactive exhibitions to prompt people to consider their relations in the watery flows of Cape Town (https://futurewater.uct.ac.za/water-and-you ), specifically attending to water as a human right and to our places in the Source-to-Sea hydro-social-cycles (https://futurewater.uct.ac.za/confluency-colloquium ); and engaged research on citizens involved in water sensitive urban design interventions for sustainable urban water management.

Current affiliation:
Future Water Institute, 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Cape Town; Senior Research Officer

Projects:
2023-2025  Co-Principal Investigator for Reorienting research, innovation & practice to address future water challenges in Africa (RRIP); 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Cape Town Grand Challenge Program

2023-2024  World 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 Network networking grant, Wastewater Surveillance Systems and Social Science working group; led by Katrina Korfmacher, 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Rochester with university partners in Uganda, Botswana, Alaska and Kenya          

2022-2024  Key researcher for WRC Project Implementation guideline for managed aquifer recharge (MAR) in combination with blue-green infrastructure (BGI) at local settlement level (R883,000 over 2 years).

2022-2025  Project member for Danida Fellowship Centre - Phase 2 application, 21-M01-KU. Pathways to water resilient South African cities (PaWS) 2.0 - Harnesssing blue-green infrastructure to achieve water sensitive futures

2021-2025  Project member for UCT Sustainable Campus project .

2020-2022  Key researcher for UKRI GCRF Equitable Resilience project: Water and Fire: Understanding and reducing risk with 15 “Best Bets” for enhancing capacity for transformative adaptation with vulnerable township residents on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, South Africa.

Publications and presentations:
Books / book chapters
Abrams, A., Cohen, J., Dannreuther, C. and Fraundorfer, M. Process: From kin to thing – The environmental and human death zones of European waters. In Minority and Indigenous Trends 2023: Focus on Water. Minority Rights Group International, London, United Kingdom.

Abrams, A. ‘We just saw the fence”: how conservation militarization negatively impacts locals’ wellbeing. 2022. In The Violence of Conservation in Africa. Elgar publishers. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/the-violence-of-conservation-in-africa-9781800885608.html

Journal articles
Abrams, A., Asmall, T., Hlahla, S., Carden, K. and Dalvie, M.A., 2024. Method and process towards developing a Health Vulnerability Index (HVI) for Extreme Weather Events (EWEs) for local residents in South Africa. MethodsX. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221501612400178X

Cohen, J., Høybye , M. , and Abrams, A.  Floating, drawing, chatting and singing: experimenting with established forms of water research and dissemination. Environmental Humanities Journal, 16 (1). https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/16/1/243/386263/Experimenting-with-Water-Focused-Participatory

Makgoba, Lethabo, Amber Abrams, Martin Röösli, Guéladio Cissé, and Mohamed Aqiel Dalvie. "DDT contamination in water resources of some African countries and its impact on water quality and human health." Heliyon (2024). https://www.cell.com/heliyon/pdf/S2405-8440(24)04085-4.pdf

Mpofu-Mketwa, TJ, and Abrams, A. Telling tales in the mother tongue: Translanguaging, valuing indigenous languages through digital storytelling for transformative adaptation against water and fire disasters with isiXhosa-speaking Cape Flats residents. (under review)

Deitz, I and Abrams, A. Digital waters – smart meters in South Africa. African Digital Cultures Volume – special issue. (under review)

Wilson, A., Dick, L., Ncube, S., Dickie, J., Abrams, A., Black, G., Blair, N., Carden, K., Hamilton-Smith, N., Lamb, G. and Mpofu-Mketwa, T., 2023. Living the life of floods: Place-based learning in an Anthropocene harmscape. Geoforum, 147, p.103914.; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718523002403

Julia Mclachlan, Craig T. Tanyanyiwa, Rachelle Schneuwly, Kirsty Carden, Neil P. Armitage, Amber Abrams, Patience Mguni, Lise Byskov Herslund. 2023. Pathways to water resilient South African cities; from mono-functional to multi-functional stormwater infrastructure. Scientific African. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227623001308

Deglon, M., Abrams, A. & Dalvie, A. 2023 (epub). The Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Mental Health in Africa: A Mixed-Methods Scoping Overview. Science of the Total Environment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969723020399

T. Tanyanyiwa, A.L. Abrams, K. Carden, R. De Charmoy, P. Mguni, L. Byskov Herslund. 2023 (epub). Managing stormwater in South African neighbourhoods: When engineers and scientists need social science skills to get their jobs done. Aqua - WEIS Journal (IWA). https://iwaponline.com/aqua/article/72/4/456/94527/Managing-stormwater-in-South-African 

Van Borek, S. and Abrams, A. 2023 (epub). Knowledge, expertise and cellphilms about water bodies and relations; towards decolonising expertise and values. Aqua – WEIS journal (IWA). https://iwaponline.com/aqua/article/72/5/663/94526

Mpofu-Mketwa, TJ, Abrams, A., Black, GF. 2023. Reflections on the digital storytelling method for three Cape Flats vulnerable communities affected by drought, fire and flooding in Cape Town. Social Science and Humanities Open (Elsevier) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291123000128

Ncube, S., Wilson, A., Petersen, L., Black, G., Abrams, A., Carden, K., ... & Swanson, D. M. (2023). Understanding resilience capitals, agency and habitus in household experiences of water scarcity, floods and fire in marginalized settlements in the Cape Flats, South Africa. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 8(1), 100710. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291123003157

Connections:
Future Water Institute - https://futurewater.uct.ac.za/
Water Sensitive Design - www.wsudsa.org
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-abrams-34375321/

Last Modified: Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:29:07 SAST