The Surya P. Subedi Prize 2024 – Winners Announced
The Royal Asiatic Society is delighted to announce the winners of the Surya P. Subedi Prize 2024. The first prize has been awarded to Professor Sara Shneiderman (University of British Columbia) and her co-authors: Bina Khapunghang Limbu, Jeevan Baniya, Manoj Suji, Nabin Rawal, Prakash Chandra Subedi, and Cameron David Warner for their article “House, Household, and Home: Revisiting Anthropological and Policy Frameworks through Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Experiences in Nepal” (Current Anthropology 64/5: 498-527, 2023). Professor Shneiderman is a socio-cultural anthropologist specialising in Nepal, India and Tibetan areas of China. The article is available on Open Access here: House, Household and Home: Revisiting Anthropological and Policy Frameworks through Postearthquake Reconstruction in Nepal in Current Anthropology (64)5, 2023
The authors noted in their submission that
The article emerges from a collaborative research project funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Beginning in 2017, the seven co-authors worked together closely to design research, carry out ethnographic fieldwork, analyze results, and write the article. Coming from multiple disciplines (Anthropology, Development Studies, and Political Science), at different points within our career trajectories (from recent MA graduates to Associate Professors), variously trained and employed within North American, European, and Asian university and NGO institutional frameworks, we believe that our article embodies the ideals of the Subedi prize by bridging multiple forms of knowledge about Nepal to achieve global impact.
Followed by comments from six well-known scholars (Roberto Barrios, Tatsuro Fujikura, JC Gaillard, Michael Hutt, Andrew Nelson, and Chika Watanabe) and a response from the authors, the article marks a critical moment of global engagement with the now expansive field of scholarship about Nepal’s post-earthquake experience.
The judges also commented:
Drawing on a wide range of sources, thoroughly researched, and with important and highly applicable policy lessons, the article demonstrates that basic assumptions made by ordinary Nepalis are all too often ignored in government rules and regulations. As a consequence, these rules end up inconveniencing and even oppressing the very people they are supposed to help. The authors’ combination of anthropological theory and on-the-ground ethnographic observation has a lot to teach politicians and bureaucrats, not to mention other researchers and academics.
The featured image above shows the patchwork-built environment of Borang village, Dhading district, Nepal. 2020. Photo Sara Shneiderman.
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The second prize was awarded to Dr. Pratyush Nath Upreti (Queen’s University Belfast) for his article ‘The Battle for Geographical Indication Protection of Basmati Rice: A View from Nepal’ (IIC – International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law 54: 710–731, 2023). The article is also available on Open Access here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40319-023-01323-w
Dr Pratyush Nath Upreti is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. His research explores international intellectual property and its intersections with other areas of international law. Before joining academia, he practiced law in Nepal, appearing before the Supreme Court and various subordinate courts. He is the author and editor of three books: Intellectual Property Objectives in International Investment Agreements (Edward Elgar, 2022), Intellectual Property Rights in the Post-Pandemic World: An Integrated Framework of Sustainability, Innovation and Global Justice (Edward Elgar, 2023), and the forthcoming Intellectual Property Debates in South Asia: Law, Development and Practice (Hart Publishing, 2025). Dr Upreti’s research has been supported by research organisations such as The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) Belgium; The UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and The Foreign & Commonwealth Office; he has also served as an expert and conducted commissioned studies for The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The judges noted that Dr. Pratyush Nath Upreti’s paper tackles an important topic. It draws attention to a significant issue for Nepal, which ought also to be pursuing protection for many other products, such as Ilam tea, Himalayan coffee, oranges, and so on. More research in this area is clearly highly desirable.