Abstract submission guidelines: We accept electronic as well as paper submissions of abstracts. Along with your abstract, please include your name, institution affiliation, e-mail and postal address, and your area of research.

If you are also interested in serving as a session chair or discussant, please include information on the subject areas in which you will be willing to serve.

Abstract submission deadline: The submission deadline is June 1, 2008. Your timely response will be highly appreciated.

Potential Travel Grant Sources:
>>John D. McArther
>>The Henry Luce Foundation Asia Project Grants
>>Social Science Research Council
>>Asia Society
>>The International Partnership Initiative (IPI)
>>Society for South Asian Studies

Contact Address: Send your abstract or Conference/Association inquires to Professor Alok K. Bohara, Nepal Study Center , Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, U.S.A. Phone: (505) 277-5903, <bohara@unm.edu> and/or Dr. Vijaya Sharma <vijaya.sharma@colorado.edu> of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Alok K. Bohara, Professor, University of New Mexico
Mukti P. Upadhyay, Department of Economics, Eastern Illinois University
Joel Heinen, Department of Environmental Studies, Florida International University
Vijaya R. Sharma, Department of Economics University of Colorado, Boulder
Gyan Pradhan, Department of Economics, Westminster College
Jeffrey Drope, Department of Political Science, Marquette University

CONFERENCE DETAILS

Conference Rooms: Room numbers 629 and 634, The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor's Club.

Hotel accommodation and other Details:

Nepal Study Center will provide breakfast, lunch and refreshments on the day of the conference, October 16, 2008 . For hotel accommodation at a discount rate, please contact Madison Concourse Hotel.

Other nearby hotel accommodation within .5 to 1 mile:

Doubletree Hotel Madison, 525 W. Johnson Street, Madison, Wisconsin, USA 53703; Tel: +1-608-251-5511  Fax: +1-608-251-4824 (.5 miles away)
Best Western Inn on The Park, 22 S Carroll Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703-3309, US; Phone: 608-257-8811 Fax: 608-257-5995; ( 0.18 miles away)
Edgewater Hotel, 666 Wisconsin Avenue , Madison, WI;l 1-800-922-5512; (0.28 miles away)
Hilton Madison Monona Terrace, 9 East Wilson Street , Madison, WI;Tel: 608-255-5100 (0.35 miles away)
Holiday Inn Madison At The American Center, 5109 W TERRACE DRIVE MADISON, WI 53718 UNITED STATES
Hotel Front Desk: 1-608-2494220; Fax: 1-608-2494110 ( 0.44 miles away)
Hotel Ruby Marie, 524 E Wilson, Madison, Wisconsin (WI) 53703 Telephone: 608-327-7829 or Toll Free: 877-690-7829 Fax: 608-327-7833 (0.48 miles away)
Campus Inn and Chancellors Club, 601 Langdon Street; Madison, Wisconsin 53703; (608) 257-4391 (800) 589-6285; Fax (608) 257-2832; (0.53 miles away)
Hostelling International at Madison: HI-Madison; 141 S. Butler St.; Madison, WI 53703 (608) 441-0144; madisonhostel@yahoo.com; (Shared room: $23; Private room: $47 as of September 20, 2007); Two blocks from the Capitol.

Travel Information: (Disclaimer: Use this information at your own risk and after verification.)
To arrive at Madison, the Dane County airport (MSN) is quite convenient, although, it can be somewhat more expensive.

If price is a concern, it may be cheaper to fly into either the Milwaukee Airport (MKE) or Chicago's O'Hare Airport (ORD). There is a bus from O'Hare to Madison that will stop right in front of the UW Memorial Union. Takes about three hours from O'Hare and costs about $25.00. We don't know about ground transportation from Milwaukee, although the distance is 75 miles. Here is the web site of the bus company that provides O'Hare to Madison service:

Here is the web site for the main event venue Concourse Hotel: http://www.concoursehotel.com/. Their web site says they have a "free complimentary shuttle" for their hotel guests. The main hotel is generally booked in advance, so your best options would be to look for nearby accomodations (see above).

Conference Proceedings: The proceedings of that Conference are published in a special issue of the Himalayan Journal of Development and Democracy (HJDD). We encourage you to take a look at the HJDD journal site. The abstracts, the feedback from participants, and some of the photos and videos are also available there.

Association for Himalayan Policy Research: One of the goals of the annual HPR conference is to form an Association for Himalayan Policy Research and obtain a membership of the Allied Social Science Associations which conducts annually the largest of such conferences in the U.S. For this purpose, Nepal Study Center has prepared NSCPolicyResearch-L, a list of people conducting policy research in related fields. If you are a research scholar but not yet a member of this group, we encourage you to sign up for the listserve and contribute to forming the Association.

For further details about the whole SA conference, please check the University of Wisconsin's 37th South Asian Conference Website.

	Dr. Alok K. Bohara is a professor of economics at the University of New Mexico (UNM), and the founder of the Nepal Study Center at UNM. His research focus is in the areas of environment and development and their relationships with poverty and conflict. His is currently interested in looking at the ways of using the information communication technology (ICT) to alleviate poverty (health, education, and the environment). He is interested in undertaking initiatives to foster global scholarly connectivity to promote interactions among the scholars with policy research interest on the Himalayan region.
	Dr. Mukti Upadhyay is an associate professor of economics at Eastern Illinois University. He specializes in development economics with a focus on macro and international aspects of development.
	Dr. Vijaya R. Sharma., Faculty in the Economics Department of University of Colorado, worked from 1975 to 1990 in the field of industrial sector policy, planning, and programs in Nepal and was an active member of the task force to prepare the Seventh Five-Year Industrial Development Plan and the 1987, Industrial Policy.
	Dr. Jeffrey Drope, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Marquette University
	Dr Joel Heinen, Professor, Department of Environmental Studies, Florida International University
	Dr. Gyan Pradhan is Associate Professor of Economics and the John E. Simon Chair in Business at Westminster College. He earned a PhD in Economics from American University (USA). His teaching and research interests include macroeconomics, international economics, development economics and public economics. He was chair of the ABEMIS department from 2000-2004. He is also a visiting faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis.