Aqualogues 2026

Aqualogues 2026 – Water in Education brings together academia, practitioners, artists, students and water enthusiasts to explore how we learn about, through, and with water. Anchored in Ahmedabad University’s interdisciplinary Foundation Programme Water Studio and co-hosted with WforW Foundation, the Event will open conversations around Pedagogies, Practices and Possibilities for a Water-Secure Future. Through conversations, student projects, creative expressions, experiential workshops, and sessions with practitioners, Aqualogues invites us to reimagine water education beyond the classroom, connecting knowledge with lived realities, communities, landscapes, and action. It is a space to share, learn, question, and co-create new ways of understanding and caring for water.

Register Now

Schedule

Day 1: Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Time	Session	Venue
9:00 – 9:30 AM	Registration and Tea/ Coffee, Cookies	Outside GICT Auditorium
9:30 – 9:35 AM	Welcome Opens Aqualogues by framing water not as a discipline but as a system of relationships — connecting ecology, economy, culture and knowledge. Sets the tone: a festival of thought, practice and action, not a conventional conference.	Auditorium, GICT Building
9:35 – 9:50 AM	Inaugural Address by Professor Pankaj Chandra, Vice Chancellor, Ahmedabad University Situates Water in Education within the University's wider academic vision. Frames the Water Studio's interdisciplinary, experiential identity as central to that vision.	Auditorium, GICT Building
9:50 – 9:55 AM	Introduction to Water Fest Aqualogues 2026 Introduces the day's intellectual proposition and the shape of the programme to follow.	Auditorium, GICT Building
9:55 – 10:30 AM	Keynote Conversation Rajendra Singh and Mittal Patel Grassroots practitioners — their work in community-led water conservation asks what society already knows that the university needs to learn from.	Auditorium, GICT Building
10:30 – 10:50 AM	Tea/ Coffee	Outside Auditorium, GICT Building
10:50 AM – 12:20 PM	Plenary I — Foundations of Water Education: Building a Culture of Water Ranjan Kumar Ghosh (IIM Ahmedabad), Mona S. Iyer (CEPT University), Dheeraj Rathore (Central University of Gujarat), Praharsh M. Patel (IIT Gandhinagar), Mansee Bal Bhargava (WforW Foundation) The session moves beyond factual water literacy toward knowledge, values, consciousness and practice. It asks how water education shapes how we know, value and live with water, across stages and contexts.	Auditorium, GICT Building
12:20 – 1:30 PM	Lunch	Gulmohar, University Centre
1:30 – 2:30 PM	Water Stories — Documentary and Dialogue Mallika Sarabhai A documentary screening followed by reflective dialogue connecting water with culture, art, memory and imagination.	Auditorium, GICT Building
2:30 – 4:00 PM	Bridging Classroom and Practice — Student Conversations with Practitioners (Parallel Sessions) All Water Studio faculty, TAs and jurors: Saswat Bandopadhyay, Biplab Ketan Paul, Juhi Desai, Rajan Varshney, Ritu Deshmukh, Neha Sarwate, Wg Cdr Dharmendra Sharma (Retd), Ranjitsingh Devkar R.V., Sridhar Sudhir, Anil Roy, Vivek Sheth, Taniya Malik The Water Studio is experiential and project-based, engaging roughly 900 undergraduate students each year. In this session, undergraduate students from the Foundation Programme Water Studio will engage with the Water Experts and present their learnings for further discussion, feedback and guidance.	SAS / GICT Rooms
4:00 – 5:30 PM	Project Studios: Water in the Curriculum Closed-Room Session Water practitioners + Water Studio faculty + TAs Brings together water practitioners, educators and Water Studio faculty to explore how real-world water challenges can become meaningful opportunities for student learning in the Water Studio — sharing challenges, exchanging ideas and co-creating potential projects, field engagements and learning experiences.	SAS / GICT Rooms
5:00 – 5:30 PM	High Tea	SAS / GICT Rooms

Day 2: Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Time	Session	Venue
9:30 – 10:00 AM	Registration, Tea / Coffee, Cookies	Auditorium, GICT Building
9:30 – 11:00 AM	Plenary II — Integrating Water: Possibilities for Pedagogy and Curriculum Ritu Deshmukh, Taniya Malik, Saswat Bandhopadhyay, Ranjitsingh Devkar R.V., Saptam Patel Reimagines water as a lens for connecting disciplines, systems and life, continuing Day 1's foundational questions. The conversation turns from why water belongs in education to how curriculum and pedagogy might be reshaped around it.	Auditorium, GICT Building
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM	Foundation Challenge TAs: Ritu Deshmukh, Taniya Malik, Saswat Bandhopadhyay, Ranjitsingh Devkar R.V. Students participate in applied, field-based challenge work translating real water questions into project work. Continues the Project Studios model toward the Winter Water Studio and the closing Expo.	Exhibition Hall, GICT Building
1:30 – 2:30 PM	Lunch	Gulmohar, University Centre
11:30 AM onwards	Foundation Expo The Foundation Programme's culminating Expo. Makes tangible the programme's core claim that learning at the Programme is to see connections, not simply learning facts about water.	Rooms 002, 003, 004 GICT Building