Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs and the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies
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Joint Conference of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs and the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies October 28 to 30, 2011 Macalester College Saint Paul, MN Conference websites http://www.macalester.edu/mcaa/ http://anhs-himalaya.org/hsc/ Message from MCAA President On behalf of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, I am delighted to welcome you to our 60th meeting. This year the conference is being held in conjunction with the First Himalayan Studies Conference organized by the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies. The Program Chair for both conferences is Professor Arjun Guneratne of Macalester College. As you can see from the program, Arjun has done a remarkable job in producing an integrated conference that deals with a broad range of topics ranging from climate change in the Himalaya to classical Chinese literature. I would like to extend our profound appreciation to him for all his efforts in ensuring that this conference will be intellectually enriching. This year I have invited Dr. Karma Lekshe Tsomo as the MCAA presidential speaker. With scholarly interests in Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, she is the author and editor of numerous books. She will speak on “Changes and Challenges: Women in Asian Buddhist Cultures" at 3:45 pm on Saturday. Her talk will be followed by the MCAA Business Meeting, which everyone is welcome to attend; wine and cheese will be served. In keeping with MCAA tradition, our keynote speaker will be Professor Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, Professor of Anthropology at Yale University and immediate Past President of the Association for Asian Studies. His talk, on “Forests and the Environmental History of India”, will take place on Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. His talk will be preceded by the awarding of student prizes: the Sidney DeVere Brown and Mikiso Hane prizes for outstanding undergraduate papers and the Percy Buchanan prizes for outstanding papers written by graduate students. Enjoy the conference! Katherine Bowie 3 Message from the President of the ANHS Welcome to the First ANHS Himalayan Studies Conference. This conference marks ANHS’s new relationship as a Center in Developing Status with the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). Support though CAORC, without which this conference would not be possible, is provided by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Arjun Guneratne for convening the conference, and Macalester College as the host institution. When members of the ANHS Executive Council conceived this conference a year ago we decided to center on the theme “Rethinking the Himalaya: The Indo-Tibetan Interface and Beyond.” In doing so, we hope to provide continuity with a seminal 1973 conference and resulting volume, edited by Jim Fisher who we’re proud to have with us at this conference, titled Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo- Tibetan Interface. That groundbreaking conference and volume set the tone for decades of research highlighting the Himalayas as an important historical and contemporary crossroads of polities, economic transactions, and cultures. Our aims for this year’s conference are to assess where we’ve been, learn about new directions in present and future research, and broaden the international base for Himalayan Studies by forging new connections. Importantly, holding the ANHS conference in conjunction with the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs allows us to underscore ways that our research can contribute to scholarship on two areas that the Himalayan region straddles: South Asia and East Asia. Highlights of this conference include our invited speakers: Drona Rasali. Plenary Address “Envisioning an equitable space for marginalized people in Nepal: A journey of small strides contributing to ‘change’ for social justice.” Pratyoush Onta. Plenary Address “The past and future of Nepal Studies in Nepal.” David Gellner. Keynote Address “Upland Region or 'a World of Peripheries'? Some thoughts on Himalayan identities” We are pleased that you can join us in taking this opportunity to see old friends, meet new colleagues, and devote a few days to scholarly exchange on the Himalayan region. We look forward to learning about your research, and encourage you to submit your papers to the ANHS-sponsored journal Himalaya. In the meantime, enjoy the conference. Sincerely yours, Geoff Childs 4 6oth Annual Meeting of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs and The First Himalayan Studies Conference Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Joint Conference Program Friday, October 28 Registration: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m, Smail Gallery, Organizer and Chair: Sarah Besky, University of Olin Rice Hall Wisconsin-Madison Session I: 8:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Sara Shneiderman, Yale University “Situating Darjeeling and Sikkim in the Himalayas and South Asia” Tina Harris, University Amsterdam “Haunting the Border and Flooding the Market: Trade and the Indo-Tibetan Interface” Mona Chettri, SOAS-University London “Evolution of an Identity- The Political Re-definition Chair: Dilli Ram Dahal, Tribhuvan University of the Gorkhas of the Darjeeling Hills” Janak Rai, University of Michigan/Tribhuvan Olivier Chiron, University Bordeaux University “Tourism in the Himalayan state of Sikkim: practices “Emplacing Histories and Re-imagining the Nation: and representations” Place-making and the cultural politics of Dhimals' indigenous activism in Nepal” Mabel Gergan, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill “Resisting Hydropower Development in the Eastern Himalayas, India.” Laya Prasad Uprety, Tribhuvan University “Marginalization of Indigenous Tharu Community in Common Property Resource Management: A Case Study of an Indigenous Irrigation System from the Tarai of Nepal” Mingma Sherpa, University of Massachusetts-Amherst “Sherpa Conservation Governance in the Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone, Nepal” 5 ! # Organizer and Chair: Sarah Besky, University of Organizer: John Metz, Northern Kentucky University Wisconsin-Madison Sarah J. Halvorson, Shah F. Khan, and Ulrich Kamp, Debarati Sen, American University University of Montana “Measured Invisibility: Ghumauri and the “Reconstructing Balakot, Northern Pakistan: A Five- Challenges of Worker Organizing in Darjeeling Year Retrospective on the 2005 Kashmir Plantations” Earthquake” Mélanie Vandenhelsken, Austrian Academy of Keith Bosak, University of Montana, Missoula Sciences “Between Conservation and Development: “Gurungs, ‘ethnic’ association and the state in Marginalization and resource access in the Sikkim: opposition and consent in the making of Uttarakhand Himalaya.” ethnicity” Barbara Brower, Portland State University Mark Turin, Cambridge University/Yale University “The Future of Himalayan Yak-herding: Resilience “Mother Tongues and Multilingualism: Reflections or Collapse?” on Linguistic Belonging in Sikkim” Asheshwor Shrestha, Nepal Pvt. Ltd. Sarah Besky, University of Wisconsin-Madison “Local knowledge inputs in prioritizing climate “Political Ecologies of Justice on Darjeeling Tea change adaptation measures—the case of Nepal” Plantations” Session II: 10:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. #! Chair: John Metz, Northern Kentucky University Chair: Mahendra Lawoti, Western Michigan University Karl Ryavec, University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point “Mapping the Indo-Tibetan Frontier in the Historical Mahendra Lawoti, Western Michigan University Atlas of Tibet” “From mono-ethnic state to poly-ethnic polity: Exclusion/Inclusion and Democracy in Nepal” Stefan Fiol, University of Cincinnati “Unsettling Regionalism: Perspectives from the Dilli Ram Dahal, Tribhuvan University, Nepal Uttarakhand Himalayas” “Social Exclusion in Nepal: A Study of Yadavs of Central Nepal Tarai” John (Jack) Shroder, University of Nebraska - Omaha “Constraints and Possibilities for Research on Dinesh Paudel, University of Minnesota Physical Environments in the Hindu Kush and “A Pre-History of the Maoist Movement: Nature, Himalaya” Culture and the Emergence of Rebellious Consciousness in Thabang of Nepal” Annelies Ollieuz, University of Oslo “‘Politicians and other educated people’: Political parties as arenas of informal learning” 6 Jessica Ka Yee Chan, University of Minnesota-Twin " Cities “Cinematic Encounter: Lu Xun, Douglas Fairbanks, and The Thief of Bagdad (1924)” Chair: Laura Kunreuther, Bard College Brunson, Jan, University of Hawaii “The role of sons in post-monarchy, secular Nepal” Nadine Plachta, University of Berne “Reflexivity in Relation to Tradition: the Education Chair: Ruthanne Kurth-Schai, Macalester College of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Nepal.” Sangsook Lee-Chung, University of Illinois at Urbana- Om Gurung, Tribhuvan University Champaign “The Question of Indigeneity and Identity in a “Personalized Globalization, Vicarious Federal Nepal” Cosmopolitans: South Korean “Geese-dad” Academics” Zhini Zeng, Ohio State University “Second-Culture Worldview Construction: Culture Gains during Study Abroad” !" " # Chair: Hiromi Mizuno, University of Minnesota Discussant: Hiromi Mizuno R.W. Purdy, John Carroll University “Men, Martyrs and Myth: Kamikaze and Islamist Suicide Bombers” Yuko Shibata, Saint John's University/College of Saint Benedict “Spectacle Excess and the Volatility of Gaze: Subverting Atomic Bomb Victimhood” Lianying Shan, Gustavus Adolphus College “Nostalgia and Identity Formation in Postwar Japan: a Study of Popular and Literary Accounts