About the Lecture Series

The Ursula Graham Bower Lectures are the Highland Institute’s most prestigious annual academic event, established to honour the legacy of one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable ethnographers and wartime leaders. Known for her deep and sustained engagement with the Zeme Nagas of Northeast India, Ursula Graham Bower produced a formidable body of ethnographic writing, photography, and film during the 1930s and 1940s. During World War II, she led a guerrilla force of Naga scouts—famously known as Bower Force—in resistance to the Japanese advance into India. Her life and work exemplify fearless inquiry, deep cultural empathy, and a commitment to ethical engagement in politically charged and often dangerous contexts.

The lecture series traces its origins to 2013, when it was inaugurated as the Hutton Lectures, in memory of Dr. John Henry Hutton, colonial ethnographer and later Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Hutton served in the Indian Civil Service from 1909 to 1935, primarily in the Naga Hills, where he documented the customs, languages, and governance structures of highland societies. His major monographs, The Angami Nagas and The Sema Nagas, remain foundational texts in the anthropology of the region. Though inextricably linked with the apparatus of colonial administration, Hutton’s work also reflects a genuine ethnographic commitment to understanding Naga culture and law. He was instrumental in building museum collections and contributed to early ethnographic photography and audio recordings.

In 2021, responding to the evolving mission of the Institute and global debates on decolonising knowledge, the series was reconstituted as the Highlander Lectures, marking a more expansive and inclusive intellectual horizon. Finally, in 2025, the event was renamed the Ursula Graham Bower Lectures, anchoring the series in the legacy of a woman whose anthropological vision, wartime courage, and cross-cultural solidarity embody the values the Institute holds most dear.

Purpose and Format

Held annually in December in Kohima, Nagaland, the Bower Lectures form the centrepiece of the Institute’s academic calendar. Each year, a distinguished scholar is invited to deliver the keynote lecture. The event brings together Highland Fellows, visiting researchers, regional scholars, students, artists, and community leaders in a setting that fosters both intellectual exchange and public dialogue.

The lectures are open to the public and typically accompanied by a reception, fostering informal dialogue among scholars, students, and guests. The format is designed to be intellectually rigorous, yet inclusive, accessible, and locally rooted.

The Bower Lectures serve to:

• Celebrate leading-edge scholarship in anthropology, indigenous studies, environmental humanities, political thought, visual culture, and history;
• Interrogate urgent issues affecting highland and borderland communities across Asia and globally;
• Mentor younger scholars, particularly through integration with the Winter Research Colloquium and the PGCertR programme;
• Advance critical conversations on decolonisation, representation, sovereignty, and plural ways of knowing.

The Lecture Symposium

While the keynote lecture remains the centrepiece, the event is typically accompanied by a Lecture Symposium, a multi-day academic gathering. From its earliest days as the Hutton Lectures, the vision behind the series included a symposium component—an open forum for researchers working across the region to present ongoing work, share insights, and collectively reflect on the year’s research activities.

Over the years, this symposium has taken many forms—from informal research roundtables to fully fledged conferences. From 2025 onward, the symposium is formally integrated into the Postgraduate Certificate in Research (PGCertR) programme. PGCertR students present their preliminary research findings in the Winter Research Colloquium, contributing to a dynamic academic space where senior scholars, mentors, and community partners offer feedback and support.

The Lecture Symposium also occasionally features:

• British Academy Writing Workshops (2021–2022), led by Dr. Hephzibah Israel, Dr. John Zavos, Dr. John Thomas, and Prof. William Gould;
• Project Conferences, such as the Ekologos: Global Environmental Humanities Conference (2023), which convened interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners;
• Film screenings, artist talks, roundtables, and archival showcases that highlight creative methodologies and critical practice.

Distinguished Past Speakers

Since 2013, the lecture series has welcomed leading thinkers and practitioners from around the world, including:

• Prof. Arkotong Longkumer (University of Edinburgh)
• Dr. Mark Elliott (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge)
• Fr. Dr. Abraham Lotha (The Chumpo Museum)
• Prof. Peter J. Matthews (Kyoto University)
• Dr. Bérénice Guyot-Rechard (King’s College London)
• Prof. Antonio Guerreiro (State University of Campinas, Brazil)
• Dr. Dharamsing Teron (Centre for Karbi Studies)
• Dr. Lydia Walker (Ohio State University)
• Prof. William Gould (University of Leeds)
• Dr. Suryasikha Pathak (Dibrugarh University)
• Ms. Catriona G. Child (The Highland Institute)

Lecture topics have ranged widely—from indigenous theology, oral literature, and borderland politics, to climate change, religious nationalism, and museology.

Legacy of Ursula Graham Bower

Ursula Graham Bower (1914–1988) is remembered as a trailblazing anthropologist, documentarian, and wartime leader. Educated at Roedean School in England, she first travelled to Northeast India in 1937 and immersed herself in the lives of the Zeme Nagas. Over nearly a decade, she produced a substantial ethnographic archive—photographs, films, notebooks, and the celebrated books Naga Path and The Hidden Land.

During World War II, Bower led Bower Force, a group of Naga scouts under V Force, in defence of India’s eastern frontier. For her courage, she was awarded the MBE and the Lawrence of Arabia Medal. After the war, she continued her anthropological work, raised a family, and reflected deeply on the legacies of empire, gender, and cultural encounter.

Her legacy—of intellectual rigour, deep humility, and extraordinary bravery—continues to shape the Institute’s ethos and aspirations.

Publications and Recordings

Select lectures are recorded and archived in the Highland Institute Video Library. Written excerpts and curated reflections are periodically published via Highlander Press, and integrated into volumes such as Passing Things On: Ancestors and Genealogies in Northeast India (2014). A future collected edition of Bower Lectures is in development.

Attend or Participate

The next edition of the Ursula Graham Bower Lectures will be held in December 2025 in Kohima, Nagaland.

For updates or to express interest in participating in the Lecture Symposium, please contact the Academic Office at:

Meluri Road, Ziekezou Colony, Kohima, Nagaland, India

info@highlandinstitute.org

highlandinstitute.org