Fifth Asian Studies Conference organized by SAFAR
- Post On05/30/2024
- ByShankar Paudel
In May 2024, I had the privilege of experiencing an extraordinary coincidence when I participated in a conference on “Indigenous Environmental Knowledge, Tourism, and Nomadic Wisdom: Discoursing in the Field of Archeology, Anthropology, and Post Colonialism” that centered around the topics of my research. SAFAR, IACER, and CASSA jointly organized the conference. This provided me with an opportunity to share my latest research on Indigenous Environmental Justice. I am deeply appreciative of all the participants who asked questions about the topic, showed their support for my work, and provided me with valuable insights on various factors I should consider when studying communities of indigenous peoples.
As a member of SAFAR as well as the conference organizing committee, I got an opportunity to take part in the Fifth Asian Studies Conference in person, which I had been missing for the past three years. In spite of the fact that participating in so many activities simultaneously within a span of four weeks was extremely stressful, difficult, and chaotic, I must say that these were the most amazing opportunities I could have ever had as a graduate student.
Shankar Paudel
यत् भावो – तत् भवति।
My name is Shankar. I am a PhD student in Rhetoric and Writing Studies (RWS) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). I am also an assistant director in the rhetoric and writing studies program. At UTEP, apart from being a doctoral student, I am working as an instructor of technical writing (RWS-3359) and first-year composition (RWS 1301). I worked as an assistant director at the University Writing Center for three semesters (2022 Spring, 2023 Fall, and 2024 Spring). Prior to that, I was a graduate consultant at the University Writing Center (UWC) for a year and coordinated the Workshop Committee during that time. In the summer of 2022, I worked with the School of Nursing at UTEP as a PhD Research Associate. My research and teaching interests are more related to Indigenous environmental justice, environmental humanities, environmental historiography, rhetoric and composition, digital humanities, multimodal composition, and technical communication. My dissertation is focused on Indigenous Environmental Justice in the field of technical communication. I am the president of two student organizations at UTEP, Frontera Retorica (a student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America at UTEP) and Nepali Students Association at UTEP (NSA-UTEP). Internationally, I am associated with the South Asian Foundation for Academic Research (SAFAR—https://www.safarsouthasia.org/2022/02/08/shankarpaudel/) as an academic Counsellor and the Center for Advanced Studies in South Asia (CASSA) as a digital consultant and also involved in various projects.