Envisioning collaborative futures for scholarship concerning small Himalayan polities.
Conversations on Small States (CoSS) is an event series set up by Professor Nitasha Kaul at the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the School of Social Sciences, University of Westminster. CoSS events focus on different small states and polities, and on different aspects of various small states and polities, in order to encourage new ways about or thinking about power and identity in international relations.
The events are free and aimed at academics, students, and members of the public.
This event, CoSS4, is the fourth in the series and will focus on the Himalayas.
The Himalayas are home to a rich entanglement of communities, histories, and cultures that defy political borders. As access to the region increases and interest grows, the Himalayas have become a fertile ground for scholarly inquiry disciplines. While dominant narratives often frame the region through the lens of bigger regional nation-states in Asia, this event encourages us to think otherwise—to engage the Himalayan region through the smaller states, polities, and borderland societies with their multiple lenses of politics, economy, culture, history, and ecology.
Event programme
- 3.30–3.45pm: Arrival and light refreshments
- 3.45–4.15pm: Welcome and launch of the "The Himalayas from its edges: networks, identities, and place-making" with remarks by Professor Dibyesh Anand (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Westminster) and Professor Nitasha Kaul (Professor of Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies; Director, CSD)
- 4.15–5.15pm: Thematic Conversations led and facilitated by Namgyel Wangchuk (PhD candidate, CSD) towards the setting up of a Himalayan Scholars’ Network (HSN) at the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster. This gathering will bring together a broad and inclusive community of scholars—students, academics, researchers, professionals, and practitioners—who identify with or work on the region in its many dimensions. HSN will aim to be a space to connect, collaborate, and co-imagine the future of Himalayan scholarship and engagement.
- 5.15–5.30pm: Closing reflections and next steps
Open-floor for brief thoughts and takeaways and summary of next steps by event organisers.
Please join us for the conversations, connections, and the inauguration of a continuing community of curiosity and care.
Followed by another CSD event at the same venue from 6pm onwards that will be of interest to attendees.
Organiser bios
Namgyel Wangchuk
Namgyel Wangchuk is a PhD researcher in Politics at the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), University of Westminster. A Chevening Scholar (2020–2021), he is a Bhutanese policy-focused practitioner, researcher, and civic innovator. His work focuses on the politics of education policies in Bhutan, particularly within the context of democratic transition and state-building.
Nitasha Kaul
Nitasha Kaul (Joint PhD Economics and Philosophy, University of Hull) is a multidisciplinary academic, novelist, economist, poet and public intellectual. She is Chair Professor in Politics, International Relations and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), at the University of Westminster.
She is the author of over 150 publications on themes relating to democracy, political economy, Hindutva/Indian politics, misogyny, technology/Artificial Intelligence, identity, global right-wing nationalism, feminist and postcolonial critiques, small states, geopolitics, Bhutan, Kerala, and Kashmir. Her books include Imagining Economics Otherwise (Routledge, 2007), Man-Asian Literary Prize shortlisted Residue (Rupa, 2014), Future Tense (Harper Collins India, 2020), Can You Hear Kashmiri Women Speak? (co-edited; Kali for Women Press, 2020), and Contemporary Colonialities: Kurds and Kashmiris (co-edited; University of Westminster Press, 2025). Her interventions on politics, democracy, gender and human rights have appeared in major international radio, televisual, and print media.
She is the recipient of multiple research grants and awards for her research and writing across genres and disciplines.
On Twitter @NitashaKaul. See links to Nitasha's work on the Academia website.
Dibyesh Anand
Dibyesh Anand is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement and Employability) at the University of Westminster. A Professor of International Relations, he is the author of monographs "Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination”, "Tibet: A Victim of Geopolitics", and “Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear” and has spoken about, and published extensively on, varied topics including postcolonial politics and international relations, Tibet, China-India border dispute, Hindu nationalism, Islamophobia, and colonial practices of postcolonial states.
Location
The Pavillion, University of Westminster - Cavendish Campus, 115 New Cavendish Street, London W1W 6UW
Further information
For further information, please contact Namgyel Wangchuk at [email protected]
