Ria Gyawali
Ria Gyawali is a doctoral candidate in the department of Anthropology with a secondary in Critical Media Practice. Her current research examines the governance of working-class populations, particularly migrant labor, in relation to the histories of political and economic domination in Nepal. Her dissertation project is an ethnographic study of an emergent governance policy that seeks to formalize the return of Nepali migrant labor at the end of the work contract abroad. A second line of inquiry explores the history of caste and class practices and ideologies that structure relations between the state and labor. This research has been supported by Harvard’s Committee on General Scholarships. In addition, Ria is currently filming her first documentary. She holds an MA in South Asian Studies from Columbia University and a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Toronto.