Bios

Coralynn V. Davis is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Anthropology at Bucknell University. An award-winner teacher, Dr. Davis holds a PhD (1999) in Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies (1994).

She has held Research Associateships at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center (2005-2006) and at the Harvard Divinity School Women’s Studies in Religion Program (2008-2009). Her ethnographic research with communities in Nepal and India has been supported by three Fulbright Grants (1994-1995; 2003-2004; 2016-2017).

In addition to having published peer-reviewed articles in journals centered in several disciplines, her book Maithil Women’s Tales: Storytelling on the Nepal-India Border was published by University of Illinois Press in 2014. She is the producer of the hybrid documentary film, Sama in the Forest (Dir. Carlos Gómez), which is based on her research. She has also created a public digital archive of Maithil women’s oral tales.

Carlos G. Gómez studied Film and Video at Columbia College in Chicago.

In 2008 he co-founded the nonprofit Cineminga International, which – in addition to making community-based films – has provided workshops and access to media production tools to indigenous filmmakers in Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Japan, Nepal and Taiwan.

Credits include:

Goal Dreams (cinematography), Palestine, 2006. Played on BBC, Sundance Channel, Al Jazeera, ARTE, IDFA, Amnesty International ‘Top Ten Films that Matter’.

Jiica Weçe – Roots of Knowledge (co-director), Cauca, Colombia, 2010. Best Fiction Film with Indigenous Participation, CLACPI.

In 2017 Jha assisted Prof. Coralynn Davis ( Bucknell University) and the Colombian filmmaker Carlos Gomez in the making of a full – length documentary film titled Sama in the Forest. Jha also co – directed, with the Patna based videographer M Habib Ali, a 2022 documentary film titled Dalit Artist of Mithila.

Jha’s publication include Les Filles de Krishana, pregnent la parole ( Fauves Edition, 2016) – co- authored with Martine Le Coz and Rani Jha ; and an essay, titled “Saraswati Smiled : The Mithila Art Institute,” for a forthcoming collective volume of essays titled Mithila Painting : The Work of Art ( University of Washington Press). Recently Jha was producing a series of online painting workshop, led by various Maithil awardee artists, and attended by more than 80 participants throughout India and abroad.