PhD Oral Exam - Kristine Franks, Geography, Urban and Environmental Studies

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

This thesis responds to growing calls to challenge colonial structures and siloed knowledge systems that offer narrow ways of understanding “water problems” and suggests reformulating them as problems of relationship between humans and water, and between different groups of humans. It examines how water and participatory video (PV) can support knowledge democracy and knowledge mobilization, while fostering processes of intercultural water cooperation and unsettling. A central component of the research was a three-week intercultural exchange in Australia involving Indigenous youth from the Cree Nation of Wemindji who learned about water alongside participants from Ngarrindjeri, Adnyamathanha, and Kaurna communities, and the Australian water sector. The research draws on two videos co-created with community members, a magazine article co-authored with a Cree youth, and four academic manuscripts based on engaged research conducted in Northern Quebec (Canada) and South Australia. Using PV methods and explicitly centering the agency of water, the videos foreground community voices while functioning as tools for knowledge mobilization and as relational spaces for dialogue across cultural, institutional, and geographic boundaries. The thesis critically examines both the processes and outcomes of PV, offering practical insights into facilitation principles, mentorship, editing, and dissemination, while exploring how water and PV acted as mediating forces that fostered reflection, connection, and care. It argues that challenging hegemonic ontologies related to water can create conditions for individual and collective unsettling, thereby opening pathways toward more relational and intercultural practices of water care. The study is grounded in perspectives informed by water ethics, political ecology, Indigenous methodologies, hydrofeminism, and the blue humanities. It contributes to participatory research by bridging these theoretical traditions with intercultural research-creation practices, and by demonstrating how water-centered relational methods can foster care for water and for humans as embodied water beings.