Workshop on Social Justice, Community Studies, and Humanistic Rhetoric
- Post On06/07/2024
- ByShankar Paudel
Recently, during the months of May and June 2024, I traveled to various locations in Nepal. During the visit, I coordinated a workshop on Social Justice, Community Studies, and Humanistic Rhetoric that was supported by the United States Education Foundation (USEF) and led by Fulbright Specialist Dr. Lucia Dura from the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP), in Kathmandu.
As one of the coordinators in the workshop that was led by Dr. Lucia Dura and organized by the South Asian Foundation of Academic Research (SAFAR) in collaboration with Center for Asian Studies in South Asia (CASSA) and Institute of Advanced Communication, Education, and Research (IACER), I gained a great deal of knowledge about the research methods, particularly those that pertain to social justice and humanistic rhetoric. All of the twenty-four participants in the study on humanistic rhetoric and social justice benefited from Dr. Dura’s knowledge of the subject, which gave them a strong sense of ethics. In their respective areas of interest, each of the participants was actively engaged in conducting wonderful inquiries. The majority of the workshop was devoted to Dr. Dura’s expertise in the field of research, specifically the Positive Deviance approach. This was not only a novel and fascinating experience for the attendees, but it was also an excellent opportunity to offer answers to social problems in a constructive manner. Like in all other works SAFAR and CASSA do, Professors Arun Gupto and Sangita Rayamajhi were the pillars for this workshop too. They consistently generate innovative concepts for working together with academics both in Nepal and abroad. As a member of SAFAR and 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.
Overall, my recent travel to Nepal, after being away for more than three years, was extremely successful and a notable achievement, particularly in relation to my academic endeavors. I am grateful to all those who contributed. I have acquired a significant amount of insight from each and every one of you.
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.