Rupak Shrestha
Areas of interest
Borders, sovereignty, placemaking, memory, and Indigeneity.
Courses
This instructor is currently not teaching any courses.
Education
PhD, Geography, University of Colorado Boulder (2022)
MA, Geography, Miami University (2015)
BA, Geography and Tourism, St. Cloud State University (2012)
Biography
As a political geographer, I focus on teaching and writing about borders, sovereignty, placemaking, memory, and Indigeneity. I employ qualitative and visual research methods and incorporate ethnographic sensibilities to understand how peoples and communities perceive, attribute meaning to, and contest place. My recent articles primarily delve into the Tibetan refugee experience and their interactions with geopolitics and development. Specifically, I highlight the diverse forms of belonging and memory in the Nepal-China borderlands, considering the heightened Chinese influence and practices of extra-territorial sovereignty in Nepal. In my ongoing research, I build upon my dissertation work to examine the experiences and challenges of citizenship and belonging for Tibetans and Himalayan Indigenous communities across interconnected sites, including the Himalayan borderlands and diasporic spaces in Turtle Island.
I have previously taught at Macalester College, Eckerd College, and the University of Colorado Boulder. As a settler, I am interested in developing a student-focused, community-engaged visual research project that studies placemaking and belonging for refugees and new immigrants in their 鈥渘ew homes鈥� in the territories of x史m蓹胃k史蓹y虛蓹m (Musqueam), S岣祑x瘫w煤7mesh 脷xwumixw (Squamish), s蓹l虛ilw虛蓹ta蕯涩 (Tsleil-Waututh), q虛铆c虛蓹y虛 (Katzie), k史ik史蓹茮虛蓹m (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen peoples.
Recent Publications
- Shrestha, Rupak. 鈥淭erritorial Futures: On Belonging, Caste, and Pedagogy鈥�. Dialogues in Human Geography (forthcoming)
- Shrestha, Rupak. 2022. 鈥淎ffective Borderings: Sovereignty and Tibetan Refugee Placemaking at the Nepal/China Borderlands.鈥� Political Geography 99 (November): 102764.
- Shrestha, Rupak, and Jennifer L Fluri. 2022. 鈥淕eopolitics of Security and Surveillance in Nepal and Afghanistan: A Comparative Analysis.鈥� Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 41 (1): 92鈥�108.
- Shrestha, Rupak, and Jennifer Fluri. 2021. 鈥淕eopolitics of Humour and Development in Nepal and Afghanistan.鈥� In The Palgrave Handbook of Humour Research, edited by Elisabeth Vanderheiden and Claude-H茅l猫ne Mayer. Palgrave Macmillan. 189-203.
- Shrestha, Rupak. 2021. Book Review of Tim Winter鈥檚 鈥淕eocultural Power: China鈥檚 Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty-First Century.鈥� Eurasian Geography and Economics. 63 (6): 794鈥�96.