Panels/Sessions 2018
2018[sta_anchor id="2018"] The following panels/papers have been selected for this year’s conference. Please click on the paper title to read the abstract. A more detailed schedule will be uploaded in July. PANEL PRESENTATIONS[sta_anchor id="Guillaume Boucher"] SN Presenter (s) Paper Title[sta_anchor id="Victoria Dalzell"] Panel Title 1. Guillaume Boucher PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Université de Montréal Continuity and Rupture: A Catholic Perspective on Christian Conversion in Nepal Healing, Ritual and Belonging: Explorations of Christianity in Nepal 2. Victoria Dalzell[sta_anchor id="Sohan Prasad Sha"] Independent Scholar (adjunct teaching faculty at multiple colleges and universities in Southern [sta_anchor id="Sujeet Karn"]California, USA) “Our God is Not a Foreign God”: Ritual Music Practice and Tharu Ethnicity Within Western Nepal’s Christian Community [sta_anchor id="Sangita Thebe Limbu"] 3. Sujeet Karn Senior Researcher, Martin Chautari Sohan Prasad Sha[sta_anchor…
Conference 2018
2018[sta_anchor id="2018"] The following panels/papers have been selected for this year’s conference. Please click on the paper title to read the abstract. A more detailed schedule will be uploaded in July. PANEL PRESENTATIONS[sta_anchor id="Guillaume Boucher"] SN Presenter (s) Paper Title[sta_anchor id="Victoria Dalzell"] Panel Title 1. Guillaume Boucher PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Université de Montréal Continuity and Rupture: A Catholic Perspective on Christian Conversion in Nepal Healing, Ritual and Belonging: Explorations of Christianity in Nepal 2. Victoria Dalzell[sta_anchor id="Sohan Prasad Sha"] Independent Scholar (adjunct teaching faculty at multiple colleges and universities in Southern [sta_anchor id="Sujeet Karn"]California, USA) “Our God is Not a Foreign God”: Ritual Music Practice and Tharu Ethnicity Within Western Nepal’s Christian Community [sta_anchor id="Sangita Thebe Limbu"] 3. Sujeet Karn Senior Researcher, Martin Chautari Sohan Prasad Sha[sta_anchor…
The Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya 2017
2017 Day 1: 26 July Day 2: 27 July Day 3: 28 July
Urbanization and the Transient Migrant Labourer
In Nepal, as in other developing countries, migration has been considered a powerful factor for social change. The construction industry and contemporary investments in infrastructure are potentially acting as powerful pull factors for internal labor migration, including for more specialized construction labor throughout the year –the share of the construction industry in non-agricultural wage employment in Nepal has grown from 30% during 1995/96 to 37% during 2010/11 This paper will present findings of research on the urbanization-migration nexus with the construction industry as a proxy for urbanization in Kathmandu, Nepal. It examines how investments in urban construction and its concurrent demand for labour is giving rise to new and varied temporal forms of migration.The study is based on 83 in-depth interviews conducted with people working in the construction industry, mainly…
The History of Janakpurdham: A Study of Asceticism and the Hindu Polity
The History of Janakpurdham: A Study of Asceticism and the Hindu Polity is a major contribution to the understanding of three important social persona in Hindu societies of South Asia: the ascetic, the Brahman and the king. Deviating from earlier discussions that focused on the binary opposition between the Brahman and the king, Burghart introduces a model of a trinity that included the ascetic. Besides being a rich ethnography of the Ramanandi order of ascetics, the book also provides a very detailed ethnohistory of Janakpurdham in the Nepal Tarai and its religious significance in what was then the Hindu kingdom of Nepal. Based on a rich and largely unpublished corpus of historical documents, it reconstructs the complex dealings and inter-relationships between the royal centre and the Ramanandi ascetics at the…
Disaster Mental Health Intervention Research with Earthquake-affected Communities in Nepal: Enhancing well-being and Increasing Engagement in Disaster Preparedness
This manuscript describes results of a DFID and Wellcome Trust funded disaster mental health intervention in Bhaktapur district Nepal. The culturally-adapted intervention was tested in two earthquake affected communities (N = 240 persons), across three time points, using a matched cluster comparison design. Consistent with hypotheses, the intervention increased disaster preparedness, increased attributions to natural causes for the earthquake, reduced mental health symptoms (PTSD, depression), increased social cohesion, along with associated peer-based help-giving and help-seeking, and increased utilization of new forms of coping. Implications of the results are discussed, with emphasis on future research directions to determine the ‘active ingredients’ associated with treatment effects.
Urbanization and the Transient Migrant Laboure
In Nepal, as in other developing countries, migration has been considered a powerful factor for social change. The construction industry and contemporary investments in infrastructure are potentially acting as powerful pull factors for internal labor migration, including for more specialized construction labor throughout the year –the share of the construction industry in non-agricultural wage employment in Nepal has grown from 30% during 1995/96 to 37% during 2010/11 This paper will present findings of research on the urbanization-migration nexus with the construction industry as a proxy for urbanization in Kathmandu, Nepal. It examines how investments in urban construction and its concurrent demand for labour is giving rise to new and varied temporal forms of migration.The study is based on 83 in-depth interviews conducted with people working in the construction industry, mainly…
Evaluation of the Impact of Migration in Nepal
Nearly 16,000 Nepalis migrate to the Gulf and Southeast Asia every month seeking employment. Although there are no estimates but another large cohort also migrates to India in search of a livelihood. It is estimated that a full third (37%) of Nepalis in the age group 15-29 and a quarter (28%) aged 30-44 work outside the country (CBS 2011). Nearly half of all the country’s households have at least one member who is currently working abroad or was in the past (World Bank 2011). Remittances sent from abroad, which amounted to USD 5.8 billion in 2014, are believed to contribute nearly 30 percent of Nepal’s GDP (Nepal Economic Forum 2014). Labour migration thus has had a defining role in Nepal’s economy and social fabric. But the effect of this large-scale movement…