Fieldwork Excursion Nepal 2025: “Gender, Im/mobility and Volatility in Himalayan Worlds”

The fieldwork excursion “Gender, Im/mobility and Volatility in Himalayan Worlds” will take place from mid-June 2025 until mid-July 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nepal, a landlocked country situated between India and the Tibet Autonomous Region in present-day China, has experienced rapid environmental, socio-economic and political ruptures and transformations over the past 30 years. Against a backdrop in which people live with and through volatility, understood here in the broadest sense as a condition of uncertainty and vulnerability that is simultaneously characterized by flexibility, openness, and potentiality, we ask how differently positioned social actors live in and navigate volatile worlds. Thematically, the excursion will focus on the topics of im/mobility and gender in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. We will pay particular attention to changing gender dynamics and new gendered possibilities in contemporary Nepal while examining how these are tied to other locally salient axes of difference.

During the excursion students will stay with host families. Our base will be Boudhanath, a socially and ethnically diverse neighborhood on the northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu. Under the guidance of the instructor, students will develop their own individual research projects prior to the fieldwork excursion. In Kathmandu, they will independently conduct ethnographic research. We will meet regularly for peer feedback and in order to discuss individual projects. Students are expected to write a final research report which can potentially form the basis for their BA or MA thesis.

The excursion is open to BA and MA students. To participate in the fieldwork excursion, students must have a) completed their first year BA courses b) successfully participated in the course “Doing Ethnography” (in autumn 24/25 or spring 2025) and attend both c) the Nepali language course offered in FS 25 d) the regional module on Nepal and the Himalayas in FS 25.

To apply for the fieldwork excursion, please send your motivation letter and CV (each not more than 2 pages) by 11 November 2024 to anne.kukuczka@uzh.ch

The motivation letter should briefly answer the following questions: (1) what is your experience with doing qualitative research, (2) what is your motivation to join this fieldwork excursion, and, without getting too specific, (3) what do you want to research?

If you have any questions, please also do not hesitate to be in touch with Anne.