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New Year Message 2022

New Year Message

(PDF Version: BNAC New Year Message 2022)

We wish you a Very Happy and Successful 2022!

We would like to take this opportunity to give you a brief reminder of our achievements in 2021, and to provide you with an update on the planned activities for the 2022.

2021 proved to be a rather difficult and unprecedented year due to the menace of the Covid-19 that affected all us in one way or the other. It was very painful to learn of the passing of long-term member of BNAC and friend, Dr Chandra Laksamba, from Covid-19, in January 2021. We would like to express our sympathies to his family.

Despite all these obstacles, we tried to adapt our activities to the situation and remain productive; we were able to successfully organise and support our regular activities that have engaged BNAC members and other Nepal-related researchers and academics. Our 18th Nepal Study Days was organised virtually by colleagues at the UCL Institute of Education. (https://www.bnac.ac.uk/activities/18th-nsd/) We were able to attract a large number of papers and participants from the UK, Nepal, and other countries. The 19th Annual Nepal Lecture, delivered online last month by Prof. Sushan Acharya, of Tribhuvan University was equally successful. If you missed the lecture, the recorded version is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBBrlLGW0lU

The PhD Dissertation Prize(s) for 2021, which was established in 2017 to encourage and reward PhD students or recent PhD graduates, were awarded to Dr Amy Leigh Johnson (Yale University) and Dr Kumud Rana (Glasgow University) for their PhD dissertation chapters ‘Before Belonging: Settler Emplacement in the Farwest Tarai’ and ‘Transnational AIDS Networks, Regional Solidarities and the Configuration of Male Sexuality in Nepal’ respectively.

In 2021, we decided to go global by accepting submissions from anywhere for the PhD prizes and by inviting speakers from anywhere for our Annual Nepal Lectures. Moreover, in 2021, we spent much time and effort advocating for support for Nepal, particularly on two Covid-19-related counts: We asked the UK government to provide emergency support, including vaccine donations that Nepal badly needed (May 2021), and to remove Nepal from the UK red-list (September 2021) on par other South Asia countries. We collected voluntary donations from our members to provide much-needed oxygen concentrators in Nepal through the Non-Residence Nepalis’ Association (NRNA-UK).  Earlier, we organised a well-attended roundtable to discussion on the Covid-19 situation in Nepal involving noted scientists and public health experts in the UK and Nepal. We also organised an online discussion event in November on Fieldwork in Nepal during the Covid 19 pandemic, oriented in particular to PhD and other researchers seeking to resume their research on the ground after a long break.

In 2022, we look forward to welcoming you at the following major events/activities:

1. PhD Dissertation Prize: We will be awarding up to two BNAC Dissertation Prizes in 2022. The call for submissions is already out with a deadline of 15 February 2022: https://www.bnac.ac.uk/activities/cfs-phd-pize-2022/
2. NSD 2022: On 13-14 April, we will hold our 19th Nepal Study Days at the University of Oxford. We very much hope you will be able to participate in it. The deadline for submission for abstracts is the 7th of March. Further details can be found here: https://www.bnac.ac.uk/activities/cfp-nsd-oxford22/
3. Annual Nepal Lecture 2022: In November 2022 the BNAC Annual Lecture will be delivered by Kathryn March, Professor Emerita, Cornell University. (Details to follow).
4. The Eleventh Annual Kathmandu Conference: BNAC is one of the co-organizers, along with the Social Science Baha (Nepal), CNRS (France), ANHS (USA) and Nepal Academic Network (Japan), of the 11th Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya organised online. This year it will be held from 27 to 29 July. The deadline for submitting paper proposals is the 15th of January 2022. Details are available here: https://soscbaha.org/call-for-papers-the-eleventh-annual-kathmandu-conference-on-nepal-and-the-himalaya/
5. Chautari-BNAC Lecture Series: BNAC and Martin Chautari have initiated the ‘Martin Chautrai-BNAC Lecture Series’. Dr Krishna Adhikari delivered the Second Chautari-BNAC lecture online on 4 July 2021. (https://www.facebook.com/martinchautari/videos/533502917833673). If you would like to give a lecture/presentation under this series, let us know and we will try to organise one.
6. Election of BNAC Officers for the 2022-26 Term: We are completing our (Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) four-year term this April, when there will be an election of the new officers. We invite eligible members to put themselves forward to serve the BNAC in these positions. Election details will be announced later.
7. Online ‘Nepal Conversations’ Initiative: BNAC members Dr Uma Pradhan and Dr Nimesh Dhungana initiated and run a few thematic episodes of ‘Nepal Conversations’ online. In 2022, the programme will be run as a BNAC’s activity and will be coordinated by Dr Pradhan. Details will be shared when they are ready. So see the past programme please visit this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiBX1GC2t_8YU4gHlLsX2nw

New collaborations in Nepal: The Far West University of Nepal and Oxford University are organising the first ‘International Conference on Sudurpaschim Studies’ in December 2022. BNAC will also be supporting the organisation of this event.

BNAC Membership: We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the membership of BNAC runs according to the calendar year (1 January-31 December). Membership gives you free access to the Nepal Study Days and the knowledge that you are supporting academic exchange and the study of Nepal. We hope that you will get involved in our activities and help us to organize more events.

It would be very helpful if you could renew your membership in a timely manner, if possible by setting up an annual direct debit to be paid on the 1st of January or as early as possible. We offer a discount to members who pay online through direct debit. Please note our bank account changed last year. If you have not shifted your standing order to the new account, please do so. The details of membership and the payment methods are on the membership page here: http://bnac.ac.uk/membership/

Mailing list: If you have not already done so, please sign up here to receive emails about BNAC events: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=BNAC

Brochure: Details about the BNAC can be accessed from our brochure, which can be downloaded from our website (http://bnac.ac.uk).  Please visit our website, and Facebook and/or Twitter pages for further information or do get in touch if there is anything further you would like to know about the organization and its activities.

Best wishes

Krishna Adhikari (Chair)                 Punam Yadav (Secretary)       Fraser Sugden (Treasurer)

krishna.adhikari@anthro.ox.ac.uk   p.yadav@ucl.ac.uk                  f.sugden@bham.ac.uk