On May 29 and 30, the College of Arts and Sciences will host Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega. On Wedensday, May 30 at 1 p.m., Dr. Pacheco-Vega will will give a talk entitled "The market for human rights: The politics of global bottled water consumption within a human right to water framework."

The global bottled water market is priced at about $230 billion USD a year, and growing. Yet the growing phenomenon of consuming this vital liquid  packaged in a plastic bottle seems ill conceived given current global conditions of water shortage. Understanding the paradoxical global patterns of bottled water production, distribution and consumption necessitates explanation. Dr. Pacheco-Vega will discuss the global politics of bottled water markets and analyze whether commodifying the vital liquid is compatible with the global norm of the human right to water, as set by the United Nations’ 2010 resolution. 

Dr. Pacheco-Vega is also planning to meet with graduate students for a talk on strategies to survive the PhD journey on May 29 at 1 p.m., also in 2130 Derby Hall.

Both talks are open to the public.

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega is an Assistant Professor in the Public Administration Division of the Center for Economic Teaching and Research (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas, CIDE) in Mexico. He is a specialist in comparative public policy and focuses on North American environmental politics, primarily sanitation and water governance, solid waste management, neoinstitutional theory, transnational environmental social movements and experimental methods in public policy.