The Changing Face of Orange County

The UWRC joins the UCI Community Outreach Partnership Center in sponsoring the Changing Face of Orange County Lecture Series presenting

Professor Perlita DiCochea
Santa Clara University

Transnational Bioregionalism: Implications for Water Policy on the Borderlands
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Reception 6:00-7:00 pm, Lecture 7:00-8:30 pm

University Club, 801 East Peltason, Irvine, CA 92697

RSVP to rsvpcopc@uci.edu or call (949) 824-9337

The New River flows south to north as it crosses the Baja California/California borderlands linking Mexicali and Calexico. Its pollutants emanate from transnational agricultural and industrial practices as well as from a waste treatment infrastructure unable to keep pace with the growth of Mexicali. Addressing efforts by Calexico community activists and by the state of California to clean up "the drainage ditch," Professor Dicochea applies transnational bioregionalism as a framework to explore recommendations for coordinating resources around the New River in the face of fragmentation among the various stakeholders on both sides of the border.

PERLITA DICOCHEA earned her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in the Department of Ethnic Studies with an affiliated discipline in Environmental Economics and Policy. Professor Dicochea's current research focuses on applications of transnational bioregionalism as a framework for assessing the manner in which communities divided by
borders (including international, county, regional, and cultural) organize around water resources. In particular, she has conducted fieldwork in the Mexicali/Imperial Valley desert region regarding the contamination of New River.

Also cosponsoring this event are UCI's Center on Inequality and Social Justice, Program in Public Health, Department of Chicano/Latino Studies and the Center for the Study of Latinos in a Global Society.