Visiting CU Boulder

Conference Venue & Program

All sessions of the conference (except for the pre-conference) will be held in Eaton Humanities Building (HUMN) at CU Boulder. HUMN is located at 1610 Pleasant St, Boulder, CO 80302.

| Access Full Program Schedule Here |

Keynote Speakers

Manjushree Thapa is a writer of fiction and nonfiction, who also translates Nepali literature into English. Her books include the novel Seasons of Flight about a Nepali woman who wins a US green card in a lottery and moves to Los Angeles, the nonfiction work The Lives We Have Lost, a collection of her reportages and editorials on Nepal’s Maoist war and peace process, and Forget Kathmandu, her personal account of Nepal’s history and current affairs. Manjushree’s short stories have appeared in US and South Asian literary magazines, and her essays and editorials in The New York Times, London Review of Books, Newsweek. Her most recent novel, All of Us in Our Own Lives, just published this year, reflects on recent events in Nepal, including the devastating earthquake of 2015.

Manjushree Thapa's Friday evening Keynote - The Stories We Hear and the Stories We Don’t

Lama Jabb is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Tibetan Literature at the Faculty of Oriental Studies as well as a Research Fellow in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at Wolfson College of Oxford University. His research explores intertextuality in modern Tibetan literature, particularly the interplay between texts and oral traditions, as well as translation theory and practice. He is currently focusing on a volume on the unexplored genre of Tibetan bird stories, titled The Treasury of Intellect: Narrating the Worldly Tale of the Winged Ones. His publications include Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature: The Inescapable Nation (2015) and contributions of original literary works to Butter Lamp: Tibetan Literature Literature Website. His articles on modern Tibetan literature have appeared in the International Journal of Asian Studies and Revue d'Etudes Tibetaines.

Lama Jabb's Saturday morning Keynote - The Rise, Fall and Vagrancy of a Mountain Deity: A Poetic Account of Tibet

Pre-Conference Porgram

Charles Ramble's Thursday evening pre-conference lecture - Tibetan Sacred Landscape: Its Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them

Charles Ramble - Directeur d’études (Professor of Tibetan History and Philology) at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris - will be delivering the Trungpa Lecture at 7pm on the 5th Floor of Norlin Library on Thursday evening, August 31st, prior to the conference. This is the 5th Annual Trungpa Lecture in Buddhist Studies, a collaboration between CU Boulder and Naropa University. It is free and open to the public.

The pre-conference session for graduate students with Charles Ramble and CU Faculty will take place from 10am-2pm (with catered lunch) on Friday, September 1st in UMC 425. It will include presentations on various phases of the graduate research process and time to workshop grant proposals in small groups. There are only 25 spots for the pre-conference session. Please sign up during the registration process. Admission will be on a "first come, first serve" basis.

Thursday, August 31st
7pm on 5th Floor of Norlin Library | Trungpa Lecture in Buddhist Studies by Charles Ramble (free and open to the public)

Friday, September 1st
10am-2pm in UMC 425 | Pre-Conference Session with Graduate Students (pre-registration required, catered lunch)
1pm-5pm in Humanities 230 | ANHS Board Meeting (board members only)

Conference Program

| Access Full Program Schedule Here |

The conference program begins with a keynote talk by Manjushree Thapa on Friday, September 1st at 6pm in Humanities 1B50. The keynote is titled "The Stories We Hear and the Stories We Don’t". This will be followed by a welcome dinner catered by Sherpa's Restaurant at 7pm in the lobby of our conference venue, the Eaton-Humanities building (also called the Humanities building) at CU Boulder. Registration will be available before and after the opening keynote talk. The conference daily schedule runs from 9am to 5pm on Saturday, September 2nd and Sunday, September 3rd. Saturday includes a general meeting of the Nepal Geographers Group from 5:15pm - 6:15pm, in which all are welcome. After the meeting, there is a social gathering, organized by the Nepal Geographers Group, at the Backcountry Pizza and Taphouse (2319 Arapahoe Avenue). Sunday includes the ANHS General Meeting from 5:15pm - 6:15pm. On the final day of the conference, Monday, September 4th, the schedule runs from 9am to 12:30pm.

Friday, September 1st

5pm - Registration Opens in Lobby of the Humanities Building at CU Boulder
6pm - Keynote Speaker: Manjushree Thapa in Humanities 1B50. "The Stories We Hear and the Stories We Don’t"
7pm - Dinner Catered by Sherpa's Restaurant in Humanities Lobby

Saturday, September 2nd

All sessions will take place in rooms on the 1st Floor of the Humanities Building.

8:30am - Bagels and Coffee in Humanities Lobby

9-10:30am - Session #1
Community Forestry and Biodiversity Conservation
A Yogi and a Yeti Walk into a Bar: Himalayan Humor and Its Roles in Identity, Morality, and Ethics
Health and Hygiene in the Greater Himalaya
Flexible Citizens? Mobility, Citizenship, and Belonging in Himalayan and Tibetan Contexts
Buddhist Ritual in Constituting Himalayan Communities
Performance, Aesthetics, and Identity in Himalaya
Navigating State Institutions in the Himalayas: Ethnographic Perspectives

11am-12:30pm - Keynote Speaker: Lama Jabb in Humanities 150. "The Rise, Fall and Vagrancy of a Mountain Deity: A Poetic Account of Tibet"

12:30 - Catered Lunch

1:30-3pm - Session #2
Nationalism and Education in Nepal: Recent Ethnographic Perspectives
Language Politics and Policy in the Himalayas: Panel A
Ethics and Ritual Practice in Tibetan Literature
Exile Tibet: Identity, Practice, and Politics
Mobility, generation and temporality in the Himalayas: Panel A

3:30-5pm - Session #3
Human-Animal relations in Tibet and the Himalayas
Labor, Leisure and Law: Mobilizing Identity in the Himalayas Today
Language Politics and Policy in the Himalayas: Panel B
Decolonizing Research in the Himalayas (roundtable)
Socio-Cultural Transformation of Western Himalayas: Exploring People, Place and Cultural Landscape in Ladakh Region, India
Mobility, generation and temporality in the Himalayas B

5:15pm-6:15pm - Nepal Geographers Group Meeting in HUMN 125

7pm onwards - Social Gathering sponsored by the Nepal Geographers Group at BackCountry Pizza and Taphouse (2319 Arapahoe Ave)

Sunday, September 3rd

All sessions will take place in rooms on the 1st Floor of the Humanities Building.

8:30am - Bagels and Coffee in Humanities Lobby

9-10:30am - Session #4
Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation in Tibet and the Himalayas
Roads, spatial histories, and politics of practice in the Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindu Kush: Panel A
Medicinal Botanical Capital in Nepal and India
Consuming Shangrila: Identity Politics and Contemporary Himalayan Art
Negotiating Religious Lineage and Borders in Himalaya
Literature from the Himalayas: Rethinking the Region, Reimagining the Identities: Panel A
Nepali Diaspora, Cosmopolitanism, and Transnational Migrant Labor in the 21st Century: Moving Beyond the Gurkha Model: Panel A

11am-12:30pm - Session #5
Regional and National Scale Climate Change Impacts and Issues
Roads, spatial histories, and politics of practice in the Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindu Kush: Panel B
Engaging Himalayan Visual Culture
Literature from the Himalayas: Rethinking the Region, Reimagining the Identities: Panel B
Nepali Diaspora, Cosmopolitanism, and Transnational Migrant Labor in the 21st Century: Moving Beyond the Gurkha Model: Panel B

12:30 - Catered Lunch

1:30-3pm - Session #6
Pastoralism: past and present
Change, Inequality, and Development in Nepal
Politics of Exclusion: Changing and Challenging Narratives
Himalayan Histories: Panel A
Affect in Poetry and Songs from Tibet and the Himalayas: Panel A
Nepali-Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement: A Retrospective Look at the First Decade: Panel A

3:30-5pm - Session #7
Himalayan Mountain Tourism
Storytelling in Nepal
Designing and Sustaining Himalayan Studies at North American Universities (Roundtable)
Himalayan Histories: Panel B
Affect in Poetry and Songs from Tibet and the Himalayas: Panel B
Nepali-Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement: A Retrospective Look at the First Decade: Panel B

5:15-6:15pm - ANHS General Meeting in Humanities 150

Monday, September 4th

All sessions will take place in rooms on the 1st Floor of the Humanities Building.

8:30am - Bagels and Coffee in Humanities Lobby

9-10:30am - Session #8
Energy, Education, and Development in Tibet
Manasik Swastha: Mental Health and Care in Nepal: Panel A
Materials of Mobility: Visual & Material Archives of The Himalayas
Food and Drink as Multifaceted Things in the Himalayas, and Beyond

11am-12:30pm - Session #9
Glacier Lake Outburst Flood Risks & Hazards
Shaping the Future of Eastern Tibet: Building Amdo through Schooling and Urbanization
Manasik Swastha: Mental Health and Care in Nepal: Panel B