May 1, 2021 Nepali Academics in America (NACA) Volume 1, Issue 2 df NACA NEWSFLASH News and Events for the Friends of NACA INSIDE THIS ISSUE: NACANACA NEWSFLASHInagural Conference News andUnder Events the broad fortheme the of Friends of NACA NACA Inagural Conference ........ 1 Collaboration for Knowledge Members Spotlight ................... 2 Production, the Nepali Academics in America (NACA) organized a Recent Peer-reviewed NACA Inagural Conference Publication ................................ 4 two-day virtual inaugural conference on April 16 and 17, Job Opportunities ...................... 5 2021. The conference was a great Nepal Corner ............................. 5 success in bringing together over Introduction of NACA Council ... 6 100 participants representing academia, non-profit, industry, education policy, scientific forestry, and think tanks from different migration, innovation and adoption parts of the world. Aimed at of agricultural technologies, tourism, showcasing the intellectual social entrepreneurship, human diversity and scholarly depth, the health, and food security. The conference featured a range of interactive paper sessions focused on scholarship amongst Nepali research conducted in Nepal. The academics. Through panel topics included: natural resource discussions and pre-recorded governance, indigenous knowledge, paper presentations, academics glacial disaster, environmental [email protected] from the U.S., Nepal, Australia, change in the Himalayas, and food, Thailand, Canada, and Europe www.nepaliacademics.org energy and water. All 23 interactive shared their research, discussed, presentations were pre-recorded, and were made aware of emerging which provided time for dialogue intellectual issues related to Nepal among presenters and the and the Nepali communities. participants. Still, most participants indicated future events will have to The conference with eight panels allocate time for more in-depth and and 23 paper sessions allowed a engaging interactions. All abstracts large number of submissions to be will be published in the conference showcased within the two days of proceedings, and will be made the conference. Moderated available through NACA’s website. panels consisted of a short presentation by panel members followed by Q&A from the audience. The themes included Under the broad theme of Collaboration for Knowledge Production, the Nepali Academics in America (NACA) organized a two-day virtual inaugural conference on April Page 2 NACA Newsflash Members Spotlight Page 2 NACA Newsflash Dr. Alok Bohara Nepali (NRN) organization for his effort in giving back to Nepal, his country of birth. He is also a recipient of a Tribhuvan University-wide Chancellor's Medal award for his M.Sc. degree in Members Spotlight Statistics. He is passionately engaged in nurturing the applied economics and social science network for the development of the Himalayan region through Himalayan Applied Economics and Policy Association (HAEPA), Nepal Study Center, Annual Himalayan Policy Research Conference (HPRC), and Lumbini Center for Sustainability, which is an international research hub in Lumbini Province of Nepal. As a founding director of the Nepal Study Center at UNM, Dr. Bohara's research projects and initiatives have been impactful both for the Dr. Alok Bohara is a Professor of Economics at the training of graduate students as well as the communities in Nepal through field research and University of New Mexico (UNM). He received an M.Sc. in Statistics from Tribhuvan University in the implementation of creative ideas and 1979, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the interventions dealing with the community-level real-world problems. University of Colorado in 1986. His research focuses on the intersection of environment, health, and sustainable development, covering In collaboration with the local partners in Nepal, he is involved in developing new initiatives such environmental pollution, public health, waste management, urban forest, riparian systems, as Women in STEM, WASHPlus in schools, and citizen science, gender hygiene, WASH, and civic Youth Leadership Academy with a focus on women and marginalized communities. Dr. empowerment. As an advisor/co-advisor and mentor to about thirty Ph.D. students and several Bohara is on the NACA's Advisory Board and other Masters and Honors students, Dr. Bohara regularly provides input and shares his experiences to advance the organization's has received various mentoring awards from the UNM. As a pioneer in the development of a mission. Dr. Bohara and the team of economists knowledge platform for the advancement of and social scientists in his network would be interested in finding ways to collaborate with diaspora intellectual pool in North America through the Nepal Study Center, an institution NACA. within UNM established to do research activities in Nepal, and organize the annual conferences, Dr. Bohara was recognized by the Non-resident Page 3 NACA Newsflash NACA Newsflash Members Spotlight Page 3 Dr. Kalpana Khanal Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Issues, Review of Political Economy, The Kathmandu Post, Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Members Spotlight Dr. Khanal is passionate about teaching and mentoring students. She teaches principles of micro and macroeconomics, money and banking, and international finance (honors) on a regular basis. She has been involving her undergraduate students in research projects and some of her students have successfully presented at national and international conferences. She is excited about a forthcoming collaborative work with her students titled, “Will COVID-19 Worsen the Racial Wealth Gap in the United States?” which will be published in the June 2021 issue of Journal of Economic Issues. Dr. Kalpana Khanal is an Associate Professor of Economics at Nichols College, Dudley, She incorporates experiential learning and Massachusetts. She received her interdisciplinary project-based learning in her courses. One of her Ph.D. in Economics and Social Science Consortium fond memories with her Nichols College students from the University of Missouri Kansas City includes a cultural immersion trip to Prague, (UMKC) in 2014. Czech Republic in the Spring semester of 2018. At the crossroads of so many significant Dr. Khanal’s research interests include public world events, Prague offered students an policy, feminist economics, political economy and excellent opportunity to gain a deeper institutional economics. Her research approach understanding of how societies and economies follows a mix of qualitative and quantitative evolve. methods based on historical and institutional foundations. She follows an interdisciplinary Dr. Khanal serves on the executive board of approach to research, which requires going Association of Institutional Thought as a outside of economics and finance and drawing on treasurer, and she is the joint secretary of Asta-Ja literature emanating from sociology, history, USA. She is a member of the Association for political science, anthropology and other Evolutionary Economics, International disciplines. Dr. Khanal has presented her research Association of Feministic Economics, and the at several national and international conferences. Association of Social Economics. She is also a life Among others, her research papers, book member of Omicron Delta Epsilon (International reviews, book chapters, abstracts and op-ed Honor Society in Economics) and UMKC Women’s articles have been published in Oeconomicus, The Council. Dr. Kalpana Khanal Page 4 NACA Newsflash Recent Peer-reviewed Publication Page 4 NACA Newsflash Climate Change, Resiliency, and Development Byers,Recent A. C., Gustafsson, Peer- T.,reviewed Shrestha, M., Chhetri, Publication N. (2020). A Sustainable Solid Waste Management Plan for Sagarmatha (Mt Everest) National Park and Buffer Zone, Nepal. Mountain Research and Development, 40(3):A1-A9 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-20-00018.1 Paudel, J. (2021). Short-run environmental effects of COVID-19: Evidence from forest fires. World Development, 137, 105120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105120 Paudel, J. (2021). Bus ridership and service reliability: The case of public transportation in Western Massachusetts. Transport Policy, 100, 98-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.10.010 Paudel, J. & Crago, C.L. (2021). Environmental externalities from Agriculture: Evidence from Water Quality in the United States. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 103, 185-210. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12130 Poudyal, N. C., Joshi, O., Hodges, D. G., Bhandari, H., & Bhattarai, P. (2020). Climate change, risk perception, and protection motivation among high-altitude residents of the Mt. Everest region in Nepal. Ambio, 50(2), 505–518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01369-x Tesfaye, K., Takele, R., Sapkota, T. B., Khatri-Chhetri, A., Solomon, D., Stirling, C., & Albanito, F. (2021). Model comparison and quantification of nitrous oxide emission and mitigation potential from maize and wheat fields at a global scale. Science of The Total Environment, 782, 146696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146696 Popular News Media/Op-Eds Puckett, E.S., & Baniya, S. (2021, April 2). Exhibit showcases student work in bringing digital literacy to rural Nepal. Virginia Tech Daily. https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2021/04/univlib-code-for-nepal-exhibit.html Climate Change, Resiliency, and Development NACA Newsflash Page 5 Job Opportunities Page 5 NACAPostdoctoral Newsflash Researcher – Land Systems