Anthropologist | Disaster & Climate Risk Expert | Visual Ethnographer 

Senior Fellow, The Stimson Center

PhD, Anthropology, Cornell University

MESc, Yale School of the Environment

My work examines questions of disaster and climate risk management, water and energy policy, infrastructural politics, climate adaptation, environmental justice, and the epistemic politics of risk and uncertainty. My long-term anthropological research and the bulk of my technical work focuses on Nepal and the greater Himalayan region, but I have also conducted applied research in several countries across South and Southeast Asia. My approach is informed by training in anthropology, critical disaster studies, science & technology studies, political ecology, hydrology, photography, and environmental science.

I currently work at the Stimson Center in Washington DC, where I am a Senior Fellow in the Energy, Water, and Sustainability Program. In this role I lead projects on disaster risk governance, the development of monitoring and early warning systems for complex disaster risks, and impact-based forecasting. I also contribute to a range of other projects on water issues, infrastructure development, energy policy, and environmental governance across the Himalayan region, South Asia, and the Mekong region.

At present, I am also in the process of writing a book manuscript titled "Vital Uncertainties: Disaster, Afterlives, and Change in the Langtang Valley."  This book examines life in the afermath of the massive co-seismic avalanche that devastated the Langtang Valley on April 25, 2015, during the 7.8 magnitude Gorkha Earthquake - taking over 300 lives and causing unthinkable levels of destruction. My research examines the ways in which the people of Langtang have worked to rebuild their lives while reckoning with overwhelming experiences of loss, disorientation, and uncertainty - showing how they live the difficult questions that the avalanche posed. My writing draws on ethnographic research,  post-disaster volunteer work, firsthand experience of this disaster, and long-term community engagement in Langtang over a ten-year period.

My work and my scholarship are  guided by a commitment to multimodal and collaborative processes of knowledge production that engage people and communities in the process of assessing risks and possible futures.  My interdisciplinary approach to research includes a variety of methods - including photography, participatory mapmaking, ethnographic filmmaking, and community-engaged archival work.

This personal website showcases some of my older photographic work from the period 2006-2016 -- admittedly, I have not been able to update the site to include my latest work for several years. [I am currently working on reconfiguring and fully updating this site - but other commitments to work and family seem to keep me otherwise occupied].

To find more information on my work please visit my profile page at The Stimson Center. For links to my published scholarship see GoogleScholar, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu. Thank you for your interest in my work.