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Dohori performance at Pacheuri Dohori Sanjh (l); Signboard for Nagarkot Dohori (r).

Migration, Gender and Nation in Nepali Dohori Performance

My dissertation research examines Nepali migrants’ construction of gendered national identity through language and music.

Specifically, it concentrates on the emerging commercial genre of improvised duets between men and women, known as dohori git. In dohori, romantic love, migration, and social issues are addressed through humorous lyrical play. Dohori has become widely popular during the past three years of violent conflict, and is increasingly represented in terms of national cultural heritage. Using ethnographic and ethnomusicological methods in multiple sites—urban Kathmandu, migrants’ rural villages, and the routes in between—this project seeks to understand the expressive means by which Nepali migrants negotiate the massive changes in their daily lives, and the changing ideas of gender and nation emergent in dohori's musical discourse.

This research is supported by grants from Fulbright-Hays and the Social Science Research Council.

Planting millet in Besi, Bandipur, Tanahun district. A time for singing dohori and other songs.