Invited Speakers

First ANHS Himalayan Studies Conference

“Rethinking the Himalaya: The Indo-Tibetan Interface and Beyond”
October 28-30, 2011
Macalester College

David Gellner

David Gellner is Professor of Social Anthropology, a Fellow of All Souls, and Head of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. His doctoral research (1982-84) was on the traditional, Vajrayana Buddhism of the Newars and on Newar social organization, in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. He has carried out fieldwork in the Kathmandu Valley on many subsequent occasions, broadening his interests to include politics and ethnicity, healers, mediums, and popular approaches to misfortune, and religious change, in particular the history and effects of the newly introduced Theravada Buddhist movement. In 1991 he did three months’ exploratory fieldwork on Buddhist priests in Japan. For eight years he taught at Brunel University, west London, the first British university to introduce a Master’s course in medical anthropology. For three years from 2002-05 he held a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for research into the social history and practice of activism in Nepal (for the academic year 2003-04 he combined this with a Visiting Professorship at the Research Institute for Cultures and Languages of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies).

Pratyoush Onta

Pratyoush Onta holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania (1996). He has written on Nepali nationalism, Gurkha history, institutions, area studies and media. He has written, edited or co-edited several books including Nepal Studies in the UK (2004), Social History of Radio Nepal (2004, in Nepali), Social Scientific Thinking in the Context of Nepal (2004, in Nepali), Radio Journalism: News and Talk Programs in FM (2005, in Nepali), Growing up with Radio (2005, in Nepali), Mass Media in Post-1990 Nepal (2006), Ten Years of Independent Radio: Development, Debates and the Public Interest (2008, in Nepali) and Socially Inclusive Media (2008, in Nepali). He is also the founding editor of the journals Studies in Nepali History and Society (est. 1996) and Media Adhyayan (est. 2006, in Nepali). He is associated with the research institute and public forum Martin Chautari in Kathmandu and was its convener during 2006-08.

Drona Rasali

Drona Rasali is one of the brightest scholars to emerge from the traditionally neglected communities of Nepal. He was declared Board First in Nepal's School Leaving Certificate Examinations held in 1972. After completing Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 1980 he worked as a Veterinary Doctor with Government of Nepal for 14 years and completed his M.Sc. degree from University of Philippines during that tenure. Then he moved to Nepal Agriculture Research Council where he worked a Senior Scientist until 1999. After leading a successful research career in Nepal, he came to Canada and completed his Ph.D. in Animal Genetics in 2004. He worked in Manitoba as a provincial coordinator of a national pilot study of Canadian Pork Council for one year in 2003-04. Currently, he is working in the area of population health as a Chronic Disease Epidemiologist with the Government of Saskatchewan, Canada. To his credits, he has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications in the wide ranging areas of animal health and productivity as well as public health and well-being.