about us
The MAHE-IETO Centre of Excellence in DWEEPA
pioneers design research for sustainable and resilient futures.
The centre drives change by engagement on the ground through
new eco-pedagogies, policy propositions, consultations, and planning and design.
dweepa
The etymology of dweepa, in Dravidian tongues, is 'watery land'. Our mark is drawn from our ongoing engagement in the Western Ghats and coastal Karnataka, India, where lateritic soils are deposited by rivers, intercepted by communities, and leak into the Arabian Sea in the monsoon. We see and privilege 'wateriness', before we recognize 'land' and 'water' as separate from each other.
centre objectives
The centre's objectives are:
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To engage in context-based transdisciplinary research in the environment and communities
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To conduct education and outreach work through events, programs with key partners on the ground
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To participate in advocacy and influence environmental policies, at the local, regional and global levels
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To design and develop new practice-based creative methodologies and methods
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To develop and connect with diverse networks and build action-oriented collaborations
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To communicate findings to a wide audience including students, scholars and society, through multiple practices of research and diverse forms of outputs
research areas
The centre's practice research is place-based and transdisciplinary - we locate ourselves in fragile ecologies to understand the dynamics of places governed by natural forces. The work is oriented to impact areas of Policy, Pedagogy and Practice, and to influence, critique, challenge and innovate towards nature-culture futures.
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climate adaptation
We document climate change-related knowledges, and adaptive tactics of community practices.
situated law & policy
Our work reimagines policies that include environmental knowledge and community practices.
conservation futures
Through better understanding nonhuman-human relations, we work on new visual narratives.
planning & governance
We orient creative practices to visualize unmappable conditions to be included in master plans.
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eco-pedagogies
Our learning experiences lie between the field and the studio, between practice and philosophy.
more-than-human
Our research approach considers new materialism to include unseen nature-culture relations.