The Himalaya Program (HP) held several talks and discussions in the 2025-2026 academic year, focusing on three themes: (i) Nepal’s political upheaval and the Gen Z protest movement, (ii) exploring identity and homeland through a series of events, followed by a (iii) disaster resilience knowledge exchange workshop between BC and Nepal.
I. Nepal’s political upheaval and Gen Z protest movement
Figure 1: Online Panel Discussion: Voices of Dissent from Nepal hosted on September 23, 2025
In September 2025, following the Gen Z protest in Nepal, HP in collaboration with the Himalayan Studies Initiative at UC Berkeley, hosted an online panel discussion in which scholars and practitioners from different fields came together to discuss the causes and consequences of the unrest. The panel discussion is available to be viewed here. Furthermore, in October 2025, HP along with Nepal Cultural Society of BC and SFU David Lam Centre, hosted a roundtable discussion titled “Nepal in Conversation: Protest and Pathways Forward” to explore the societal impacts of the protests and potential pathways forward for Nepal’s future.
To further situate Nepal’s protest within the border South Asian context, HP along with CISAR and CESAR had the opportunity to host Dr. Naveeda Khan from Johns Hopkins University, along with MPPGA students to discuss the Gen Z protests across South and Southeast Asia, from Bangladesh to the Philippines and Nepal.
Figure 2: New Waves of Dissent: Understanding Gen Z Protest Movements in South Asia event hosted on February 6th, 2026
In early March 2026, we invited our IAR Fellows, Faculty and students for an open discussion following the election in Nepal to discuss the evolving political landscape and the broader implications the electoral results would have on democratic governance.
II. Identity and homeland In November 2025
Himalaya Program co-hosted a roundtable discussion, “Between Mountain and Mother Tongues,” in collaboration with the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS) to explore how language, landscapes and lifeways connected communities and generations in the greater Himalayan region.
From 2025 to 2026, HP had the opportunity to work closely with the Department of Asian Studies and the Museum of Anthropology to host events related to the Entangled Territories: Tibet through Images exhibition, curated by Dr Fuyubi Nakamura. The exhibition reimagines Tibet by contrasting historical outsider representations with contemporary realities, presenting Tibet and Tibetans through their own voices. Moreover, the exhibition was developed in collaboration with Tibetan-Canadian community members and artists. In response to the Entangled Territories exhibition, a virtual conversation was held with Dr. Tsering Shakya, facilitated by Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura, which can be viewed here. The conversation with Dr. Shakya offered further reflection on the exhibition’s themes and broader implications.
Sarah Race, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Dennis Ha, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Sarah Race, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Dennis Ha, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Sarah Race, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Dennis Ha, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Sarah Race, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
Dennis Ha, courtesy of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
In January 2026, Dr. Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy, an anthropologist of Tibet from Université Laval, Quebec, presented a response to the Entangled Territories exhibition by reflecting on her research on Tibet and its popular culture.
In March 2026, there were two events organized in response to the Entangled Territories exhibition, exploring what homeland meant to the Tibetan diaspora in Canada and the efforts pursued by community members to maintain their culture and history in the face of challenges associated with migration and the loss of homeland.
Figure 3: Entangled Territories: Conversations on Home + Diasporas event hosted on March 11th, 2026
III. Learning from Disasters in Scholarship and Practice: A South-North Knowledge Exchange Between Nepal and British Columbia
In March 2026, HP co-hosted two events with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for Critical Infrastructure Studies and the Disaster Resilience Research Network, bringing together scholars and practitioners from both Nepal and BC to share knowledge on disaster resilience. See the report published from the workshop here. As a prelude to the workshop, Dr. Sara Shneiderman and Dr. Jeevan Baniya explored how European funding is flowing into Nepal to support infrastructure development and “good governance” at the local level, while Nepalis are migrating out to labour elsewhere.
Figure 4: Learning from Disasters in Scholarship and Practice: A South-North Knowledge Exchange Between Nepal and British Columbia workshop hosted on March 10th, 2026
Over the course of the 2025-26 academic year, we co-hosted eleven events in collaboration with various units across UBC. We also worked with three IAR fellows – Laurie Tao, Salina Dolmo Lama and Yiyi Wang. Dr. Sara Shneiderman and one of the fellows, Salina, co-authored an article titled “Can Gen Z protest transform Nepal’s political futures?” in the international affairs journal Current History, reflecting on Nepal’s political upheaval in September 2025 and the rise of the Gen Z protest movement. The other fellows are working on research projects with publications forthcoming.
