IMEMS Durham UNESCO World Heritage Site Fellowships

We offer Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowships of up to three months to study Durham’s UNESCO World Heritage Site and its significance in any aspect of its tangible and intangible heritage.

Applications for the World Heritage Site Fellowship are currently closed. Please check back here for future calls or subscribe to our mailing list, via our homepage, to receive notifications. 

Current Fellow(s)

Dr Sandhya Khanal

(1 April 2023 - 1 June 2023)

I am Associate Professor of Art and Iconography at Tribhuvan University’s Central Department of Nepalese History, Culture and Archaeology, Kirtipur Nepal. I have worked across the fields of Heritages, Ethnic Communities and the Tangible and Intangible Culture of Nepal since 2012. I have conducted fieldwork in Nepal as a researcher with teams from Tribhuvan University, Ministry of Culture, Government of Nepal, Department of Archaeology, Government of Nepal, Hatemalo Samaj, Pashupati Area Development Trust (World Heritage Site), Durham and Oxford University and the latter with funding from AHRC and the British Academy.

Durham World Heritage Site has been inscribed on the World Heritage Site list by UNESCO in 1986.The peninsula is rich in its tangible and intangible heritage, which dates back to the medieval period. The site, with its enthralling architectural innovation and art is an area worthy of research and recognition. The site is rich in cultural legacy, hymnody, liturgy, artistic and literary aspiration, folklore, traditions and practices. Aiming to map and record these diverse social and cultural aspects of the site and surrounding areas, the research project will be conducted to develop an inventory and capture broad categories of folklore and stories associated with the sacred/divine, supernatural and historic. Methodologies will include literature review and field survey. This research framework will provide a foundation to continue further study of heritages of Durham World Heritage Site, and an opportunity to understand the diversity and complexity of socio-cultural dynamics within the sites.