Rupak Shrestha's dissertation, , has been shortlisted for an ICAS prize. 

The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) is a global space in which Asia scholars and social and cultural actors from all over the world can engage in dialogues on Asia that transcend boundaries between academic disciplines and geographic regions.

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Rupak Shrestha was awarded a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) grant by the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program. The award will support his dissertation research project titled "Extra-Territorial Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Politics of Development".

His doctoral dissertation project will explore emerging questions in geopolitics about interactions among extra-territorial sovereignty (the power nation-states exert over people and places outside their borders), state-building, ethnic nationalism, and multi-ethnic contestations over space, place, and political expression. Through an ethnographic case study of Chinese economic and political influence in Nepal, he will investigate the following set of core questions:

• How do the seemingly banal, everyday, and gendered practices of Tibetan nationalism and place making in one part of Kathmandu reveal the messy intricacies of Chinese extra-territorial politics of development in Nepal?  
• How do Chinese extra-territorial sovereignty and Nepali ethnic nationalism produce Tibetan refugee subjectivities in Nepal?  
• How do place based identity politics and Nepali ethnic nationalism produce contestations between Tibetan refugees and members of other ethnic groups in Nepal? Rupak will examine how everyday interactions, events, and practices reveal the intricacies of macro-scale geopolitics. In doing so, this dissertation will provide additional linkages between feminist political geography and geographies of sovereignty and territory.

For more information on the grant, see the .

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The Department of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder congratulates the winners the following Graduate Student Awards. These awards were recognized at our Spring Commencement Ceremony on May 6, 2016.

Gilbert F. White Doctoral Fellowship for 2016-2017 - Theodore Barnhart and Yang Yang

Adam Kolff Memorial Research Fellowship for MA Students - Gretchen Lang and Adam Mahood

Jennifer Dinaburg Memorial Research Fellowship for PhD Students - Robert Andrus, Angela Cunningham, Shae Frydenlund, Alice Hill, Rupak Shrestha, and Alana Wilson

James A. and Jeanne B. DeSana Graduate Research Scholarship - Theodore Barnhart, Shae Frydenlund, Julia Guarino, Aaron Malone, Rupak Shrestha, Kristy Weber, and Qinghuan Zhang

Department of Geography Excellence in Graduate Teaching Awards - Johannes Uhl (Teaching Assistant (TA) Award) and Shae Frydenlund (Graduate Student Mentoring Award).

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Rupak will receive a $1000 CARTSS Award for preliminary research, titled 'Citizenship-in-Exile: Exploring Tibetan Nationalism and Resistance in the Himalayas'. The project primarily explores how Tibetans-in-exile negotiate, navigate and perform citizenship, nationalism, and resistance in Nepal, against the backdrop of China's increasing politics of development. The grant is funded by  at the University of Colorado.

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The Geography Department is excited to announce the launch of the new Tibet Himalaya Initiative at CU, an interdisciplinary hub for research, teaching, and public engagement on Tibet and the Himalayas. ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ has unique research strengths in the study of contemporary Tibet and the Himalayas with faculty expertise in Anthropology, Art History, Geography, and Religious Studies as well as a significant location in the history of the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. Many Geography faculty and students have current research projects in Tibet and the Himalayas and are active participants in the THI, including Emily Yeh, Galen Murton, Shae Frydenlund, Sierra Gladfelter, Emily Volkmar, Tashi Dorje, and Rupak Shrestha. More information can be found here: http://www.colorado.edu/tibethimalayainitiative/.

See more at 

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