Phurwa Gurung Awarded Social Science 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó Council's International Dissertation 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó Fellowship
A high-altitude seasonal encampment for caterpillar fungus harvest in Dolpo, Nepal.
Phurwa D Gurung, PhD Candidate in Geography, received the competitive Social Science 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó Council's InternationalÌýDissertation 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó Fellowship (SSRC IDRF) funded by the Mellon Foundation. Phurwa was selected from a total of 870 applicants from graduate students at 112 universities. This year's 60 awardees represent thirty-one universities and fourteen disciplines.ÌýThe SSRC IDRF fellowship will fund a year-long ethnographic fieldworkÌýin Dolpo, Northwest Nepal,Ìýfor his dissertation research tentatively titledÌýReordering Highland Territories: State-building, indigeneity, and multispecies worldmaking.ÌýHis dissertation takes caterpillarÌýfungus as a lens to examine the ways in which state-ledÌýbiodiversity conservation and resource extraction overlap and clash with Indigenous environmental governance in the Himalayas.Ìý
Caterpillar fungus aka yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). Both photos by Phurwa.
Phurwa also recently published an article titled "" in the journalÌýEnvironment and Planning E Nature and Space.ÌýHe has alsoÌýco-authored a book chapter with Ken Bauer titled "" for theÌý. The same book also has a chapter contributed by Dr. Tim Oakes of the Geography Department.