I am an anthropologist building bridges between the arts and sciences and across the global South. I study how new technologies are translated in the Himalayas, with an interest in how human wellbeing and development might be done differently in the Anthropocene. Anthropological, psychoanalytic, and aesthetic training between the US, South Asia, and Europe mark my 18 years of academic and pedagogical experience.

Media appearances

• Public broadcasting guest on BBS2 in Bhutan, talk titled “Anthropology of Science” in 2020
• Webinar guest on Anthropologic programme “Covid-19 and Medical Anthropology”  in 2020
• Podcast guest for 8th International Degrowth Conference “Embodying Degrowth” in 2021
• Podcast guest on Anthropologic programme at Leiden University, “1000 days of life in Bhutan” in 2022
• Webinar guest on Antroplogen Beroepsvereniging (Abv) program “Anthropological Perspectives on Growth and Degrowth”  in 2023

Other links

• ERC Project Global Future Health
• Health, Care and the Body Programme Group
• Moving Matters Programme Group

Research methods

• Multimodal ethnography 
• Person-centered interviewing
• Participant observation 
• Critical discourse analysis 
• Mixed methods

Current research projects

Within the Global Future Health ERC project at the University of Amsterdam, I developed a doctoral project weaving in the concerns of my former students in Bhutan – studying the multiple pressures new mothers juggle around eating in a context of rapidly changing climate. Along with former colleagues in the Royal University of Bhutan, I followed frictions that emerged as mothers, healthcare workers, and other experts translated interventions into practice across 5 sites in the country. Despite serious challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I completed 18 months of collective fieldwork combining person-centered interviewing with multimodal ethnography to document how people negotiate between universal and pluriversal logics in global health and development. Rather than target physical or mental health with universalizing interventions, we argue that supporting interdependent or tendrel ecologies among kin, social media, water infrastructures, and worksites contribute to more sustainable wellbeing practices. We are presenting our findings in the form of policy reports and academic papers, but also through multisensory workshops and docuseries that invite different audiences to engage with relational practices that feed a more-than-human planetary body – and not only biomedical or economic human metrics.

Research grants & honours

• Royal Thimphu College. “Research Development Grant.” Nu 29,516.     Jan-July 2020
• Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation. “Curatorial Lab at JNU.” Rs 300,000            Aug-Dec 2013

Current cooperation

• Ontgroei,  Indian Institute of Public Health – Hyderabad

Postgraduate courses designed, taught, and assessed

o    Post-development, feminisms, and degrowth (spring semester 2022 and 2023), Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona [with Agustina Solera and Wendy Harcourt from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague]

Undergraduate courses designed, taught, and assessed

o    Anthropology of the Himalayas (fall semester 2019), Royal Thimphu College, Royal University of Bhutan, Thimphu
o    Biological Anthropology (fall semester 2019), Royal Thimphu College, Royal University of Bhutan, Thimphu
o    Writing Ethnography (spring semester 2020), Royal Thimphu College, Royal University of Bhutan, Thimphu
o    Medical Anthropology (spring semester 2020), Royal Thimphu College, Royal University of Bhutan, Thimphu
o    Photojournalism (fall semester 2015), Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan, Kanglung
o    Television I (fall semester 2015), Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan, Kanglung
o    Social Science Research Methods (spring semester 2016), Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan, Kanglung
o    Introduction to Political Science (spring semester 2016), Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan, Kanglung