Dipti Sherchan
Graduate Student
Anthropology, Sociocultural
Contact
Building & Room:
BSB 2102
Address:
1007 W. Harrison Street
Email:
About
I am a cultural anthropology student with an interest in the intersections of cultural institutions and nationalism/nation-building processes in South Asia. Particularly in my research, I look at the cultural politics involved in institutions like art schools, museums, and galleries in Nepal as spaces where knowledge and counter-knowledge about the nation is actively produced and reproduced. At the same time, I also explore how these artistic and political subjectivities interact and engage within and outside what are considered formal institutions.
Selected Publications
Singh, Amina and Dipti Sherchan, Declared “literate”: subjectivation through decontextualized literary practices, Studies in the Education of Adult (2018, under review for publication)
Sherchan, Dipti, Review of A difficult transition: the Nepal papers by Mandira Sharma and Seira Tamang (eds) published in Studies in Nepali History and Society (2007, Vol. 22, No. 1, Pg. 201-206)
Sherchan, Dipti, Review of Mediating the global: expatria’s forms and consequeces in Kathmandu published in Studies in Nepali History and Society (2013, Vol. 18, No. 2, Pg. 397-402)
Notable Honors
2018, Joshua Terry Award, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago
2018, Provost/Deiss Award for Graduate Research, University of Illinois at Chicago
2018, Charles Reed Award, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago
Education
2017 - Present: Ph.D Student, Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, US
2011- 2015: MA, Anthropology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
2010-2011: Graduate Diploma, Nepa School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Nepal
2007-2009 BA, Social Work, St. Xavier’s College, Nepal
Selected Presentations
Sherchan, Dipti.“Shifting imaginations: contemporary arts education and practices in Nepal” Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya organized by Social Science Baha, ANHS, BNAC, CNRS & NAN, Kathmandu on Jul 25-27, 2018
Research Currently in Progress
Currently, I am examining how the meaning of "arts", "artists" and "artisans" have historically and culturally been constructed and have in turn influenced the cultural and political production of nationality and nationalism in Nepal. I am exploring the institutional practices and discourses that have emerged out of these interactions. My research combs through the various contested legacies and narratives about the first and oldest art school in Kathmandu whereby the artists situate themselves and express their experiences to make sense of the "traditions" of "contemporariness" of their work of art in relation to the nation.