NEWS: I’m going to Yale in the spring!

I received a Short-term Collections-based Fellowship at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music for Spring 2021—specifically, March through May. I’ll be working with archival materials in the Nepal Church History Project as well as the institutional archives of the United Mission to Nepal and the International Nepal Fellowship, all of which are in the Yale Divinity School’s Special Collections. The purpose of this particular research stint is to glean basic historical information about the Khristiya Bhajan—the hymnal that churches in Nepal use and around which my current book project revolves—and the people who originally contributed to it as well as look for connections between the emphasis on literacy in Nepal’s development sector at the time and the emergence of this song collection.

This research is part of my larger project on congregational song practices in churches in Nepal. My work will (hopefully) shed important light on material in these collection that relates to the history of Christian Nepali practice, Himalayan studies, and the case of a minority perspective on religious practice in Nepal.

So while this project is months away, I plan on writing blogs as I prepare for and conduct my research. I will also be sharing additional details in my monthly newsletter, so if you’re not signed up for that, you can subscribe to it.