Dams and Development on
China’s Angry River

Dr. Bryan Tilt
240 Waldo Hall 
Friday, Oct. 17 @ Noon.

Bryan Tilt is studying the potential social, economic and environmental impacts of a development plan that calls for the construction of 13 dams along the Nu River, in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan. Parts of the Nu River Gorge is a cultural diversity hotspot, with nearly a dozen of China’s ethnic minority groups making their home in the gorge. Tilt’s presentation will address how the research team, in collaboration with Chinese scientists, is working to minimize the negative impacts of development on the region’s people and environment.

It is generally acknowledged that pregnant women require healthy and varied diets in order to provide their bodies and babies with a range of nutrients. However, the cultural idea of eating for two and what constitutes a healthy diet during pregnancy have been contested terrains as nutrition guidelines have changed over the decades. In this presentation, I argue that an investigation of the ways practitioners view and teach healthy nutrition during pregnancy is an important step toward understanding the perpetuation of midwifery and medical models of care and associated provider-effects on nutrition-related birth complications.