Tents in mountains

A high-altitude seasonal encampment for caterpillar fungus harvest in Dolpo, Nepal.

Phurwa D Gurung, PhD Candidate in Geography, received the competitive Social Science Research Council's International听Dissertation Research 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.听The SSRC IDRF fellowship will fund a year-long ethnographic fieldwork听in Dolpo, Northwest Nepal,听for his dissertation research tentatively titled听Reordering Highland Territories: State-building, indigeneity, and multispecies worldmaking.听His dissertation takes caterpillar听fungus as a lens to examine the ways in which state-led听biodiversity conservation and resource extraction overlap and clash with Indigenous environmental governance in the Himalayas.听

plant in mountains

Caterpillar fungus aka yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). Both photos by Phurwa.

Phurwa also recently published an article titled "" in the journal听Environment and Planning E Nature and Space.听He has also听co-authored a book chapter with Ken Bauer titled "" for the听. The same book also has a chapter contributed by Dr. Tim Oakes of the Geography Department.