The fascinating and inaugural ISBS launch conference took place on Jan 8-10 2019 at Magdalen College, Oxford. The conference had a plethora of hidden jewels in its papers and presentations – from buddhism to linguistics, anthropology to democracy to Gross National Happiness.
During the Conference on 9 January 2019, there were Distinguished Lectures by the Former Prime Minister of Bhutan, His Excellency Dasho Tshering Tobgay, and the President of the Center for Bhutan Studies and Gross National Happiness, Dasho Karma Ura, with the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, OECD’s Martine Durand, and Economists’ Prof. James Foster.
The ISBS launch conference reflect the ISBS aims in microcosm:
- As the ISBS is multidisciplinary, the conference will feature papers on topics from linguistics to history to natural science to Buddhism to economics and business and so on.
- As the ISBS promotes research excellence, papers will reflect the cutting edge research internationally on Bhutan.
- As the ISBS seeks to support Bhutanese scholars, both junior and established, this conference will feature their voices alongside international scholars.
- As the ISBS seeks to create intellectual community and academic exchange so the conference will provide spaces for mentoring, networking, and sharing.
- As the ISBS seeks to contribute to the happiness of future generations, so the ethos of our exchange will be to engage both the guardians of culture and tradition and those able to use the research to enact positive change.
- As the ISBS seeks to be inclusive, we welcome gifts that support the participation of all scholars.