Sara Shneiderman

Prospective Graduate Students / Postdocs

This faculty member is currently not actively recruiting graduate students or Postdoctoral Fellows, but might consider co-supervision together with another faculty member.

Associate Professor

Research Classification

Research Interests

Indigenous issues
Disaster response and preparedness
Citizenship
migration

Relevant Thesis-Based Degree Programs

Research Options

I am available and interested in collaborations (e.g. clusters, grants).
I am interested in and conduct interdisciplinary research.

Research Methodology

Ethnography
International research
Community Engagement

Graduate Student Supervision

Doctoral Student Supervision

Dissertations completed in 2010 or later are listed below. Please note that there is a 6-12 month delay to add the latest dissertations.

Migration and translocal livelihoods: transformation amidst climate change in Mustang, Nepal (2024)

Migration and climate change are not new to Himalayan communities whose livelihoods depend on their translocal mobilities and firsthand knowledge of the changing climate in the high mountains. This dissertation focuses on the district of Mustang in northwest Nepal to expand the analytical framework beyond a focus on climate-induced migration to explore other factors that influence decisions to migrate. I ask how people navigate environmental change, particularly the occurrence of more frequent and severe disasters, under conditions of high mobility. In this dissertation, I explore three key research findings. First, I show how translocal labor migration has become a normal part of the life cycle for people in Mustang, and I build on nonlinear migration theories that highlight the circular and cyclical nature of migration. Second, I explore the interconnections between migration and climate change to challenge concepts like 鈥渃limate refugees鈥 that over-simplify the connections between why and how people move in the context of environmental change. Third, I discuss how multiple overlapping disasters in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and Nepal鈥檚 devastating floods in 2021 threaten livelihoods and I show that translocal kinship and economies of care are at the core of how people in and from Mustang recover and rebuild in the wake of disaster and disruption. I argue that anthropologists are uniquely situated to contribute to research on the animate environment and the co-constitution of humans and more-than-human beings that intersect with the ways communities navigate the practical and discursive dynamics of climate change. I conclude that the existence of translocal kinship networks and reciprocal exchanges between humans and their animate environment are in many ways the lifeline for high mountain communities like Mustang鈥攃ommunities who live in disaster-prone regions while also being at the forefront of massive state-led borderland development and securitization projects.

Publications

  • (2022)
    Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology,
  • (2020)
    Development and Change, 51 (4), 939--969
  • (2020)
    BC Studies,
  • Learning from Disasters: Nepal copes with coronavirus pandemic 5 years after earthquake (2020)
    The Conversation,
  • Reconstructing Nepal: Bhaktapur 鈥 Heritage and Urban Reconstruction (2020)
    Social Science Baha,
  • (2020)
    Verge: Studies in Global Asias,
  • The Affective Potentialities and Politics of Ethnicity, Inc. in Restructuring Nepal: Social Science, Sovereignty, and Signification (2020)
    Ethnicity, Commodity, In/Corporation,
  • Identity, Society, and State: Citizenship and Inclusion in Nepal (2019)
    The Politics of Change: Reflections on Contemporary Nepal锝溹じ啶啶距げ啷啶 啶ㄠ啶ぞ啶: 啶班ぞ啶溹え啷啶むた 啶 啶呧え啷嵿く 啶嗋く啶距ぎ,
  • New laws weaponize citizenship in India (2019)
    The Conversation,
  • Reconstructing Nepal: Post-Earthquake Experiences from Bhaktapur, Dhading and Sindhupalchowk (2019)
    Social Science Baha,
  • Reconstruction Conundrums (2019)
    Kathmandu Post,
  • Thangmi Wedding Ritual Texts (2019)
    Ritual Speech in the Himalayas: Oral Texts and Their Contexts,
  • (2018)
    Oxford University Press,
  • (2018)
    Tolerance, Secularization and Democratic Politics in South Asia,
  • (2018)
    Memory,
  • Citizenship, Gender, and Statelessness in Nepal: Before and After the 2015 Constitution (2017)
    Understanding Statelessness,
  • (2017)
    Trans-Himalayan Borderlands: Livelihoods, Territorialities, Modernities,
  • What鈥檚 brewing in Darjeeling (2017)
    The Hindu,
  • (Review) Mediating the Global: Expatria鈥檚 Forms and Consequences in Kathmandu (2016)
    Pacific Affairs,
  • (2016)
    Modern Asian Studies,
  • Nepal鈥檚 Rule-of-Law Politics Demand Global Attention (2016)
    Globe & Mail,
  • Critique of Anthropology 35 (3): Resiting the Village (2015)
  • Nepal鈥檚 Relief Effort Must Reach the Rural Poor (2015)
    Globe & Mail,
  • (2015)
    Critique of Anthropology,
  • (2015)
    Modern Asian Studies,
  • Rituals of Ethnicity: Thangmi Identities Between Nepal and India (2015)
    University of Pennsylvania Press,
  • Circular Lives: Histories and Economies of Belonging in the Transnational Thangmi Village (2014)
    Facing Globalization in the Himalayas: Belonging and the Politics of the Self,
  • (2014)
  • Living Practical Dharma: Chomo Khandru and the Himalayan Bon Tradition (2014)
    Buddhists: Understanding Buddhism Through the Lives of Practitioners,
  • (2014)
    American Anthropologist,
  • (2013)
    Focaal,
  • Focaal鈥擩ournal of Global and Historical Anthropology 65: Toward an Anthropology of Affirmative Action (2013)
  • (2013)
    Political Geography,
  • (2013)
    Focaal,
  • (2012)
    Asian Survey,
  • Restructuring the State, Restructuring Ethnicity: Situating Nepal in Contemporary Social Scientific Debates (2012)
    Ethnicity and Federalisation in Nepal,
  • (2012)
    Windows into A Revolution: Ethnographies of Maoism in India and Nepal,
  • Synthesizing Practice and Performance, Securing Recognition: Thangmi Cultural Heritage in Nepal and India (2011)
    Ritual, Heritage and Identity: The Politics of Culture and Performance in a Globalised World,
  • 鈥楶roducing鈥 Thangmi Ritual Texts: Practice, Performance and Collaboration (2010)
    Language Documentation and Description,
  • (2010)
    Journal of Global History,
  • (2010)
    Varieties of Activist Experience: Civil Society in South Asia,
  • Negotiating Nepal鈥檚 Two Polities: A View from Dolakha (2010)
    In Hope and in Fear: Living Through the People鈥檚 War in Nepal,
  • Ethnic (P)reservations: Comparing Thangmi Ethnic Activism in Nepal and India (2009)
    Ethnic Activism and Civil Society in South Asia,
  • Reservations, Federalism and the Politics of Recognition in Nepal (2008)
    Economic and Political Weekly,
  • Not just nuns and oracles: contemporary Tibetan women (Review of Women in Tibet, Past and Present, Janet Gyatso and Hanna Havnevik, eds) (2007)
    IIAS Newsletter,
  • Barbarians at the Border and Civilising Projects: Analaysing Ethnic and National Identities in the Tibetan Context (2006)
    Tibetan Borderlands,
  • Revisiting Ethnography, Recognizing a Forgotten People: The Thangmi of Nepal and India (2006)
    Studies in Nepali History and Society,
  • Seeking the Tribe: Ethno-politics in Darjeeling and Sikkim (2006)
    Himal Southasian,
  • Agency and Resistance in the Thangmi-Newar Ritual Relationship: An analysis of Devikot-Khadga Jatra in Dolakha, Nepal (2005)
    The European Bulletin of Himalayan Research,
  • Swapping Identities: Borderland Exchanges along the Nepal-TAR Frontier (2005)
    Himal Southasian,
  • (2004)
    Anthropology Today,
  • The Path to Jan Sarkar in Dolakha District: Towards an Ethnography of the Maoist Movement (2004)
    Himalayan People鈥檚 War: Nepal鈥檚 Maoist Rebellion,
  • Women and the Maobadi: Ideology and Agency in Nepal鈥檚 Maoist Movement (2004)
    Himal Southasian,
  • 啶ㄠ啶ぞ啶侧啶 啶椸ぞ啶夃啶ぞ 啶班ぞ啶溹啶むた啶 啶氞啶むえ啶 啶ㄠた啶班啶ぞ啶 : 啶膏啶ムぞ啶ㄠ啶 啶囙い啶苦す啶距じ啶侧 啶膏た啶曕ぞ啶忇啷 啶ぞ啶 (Nepalka gauma rajnitik chetana nirman: sthaniya itihasle sikaeko path) (2004)
    啶膏ぎ啶距さ啷囙ざ啷 啶侧啶曕い啶ㄠ啶む啶班啶 啶嗋ぇ啶距ぐ啶灌ぐ啷 (Samabesi loktantra-ka adharharu/The Foundations of Inclusive Democracy),
  • (Review) Sensory Biographies: Lives and Deaths among Nepal鈥檚 Yolmo Buddhists (2003)
    Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies,
  • Violent Histories and Political Consciousness: Reflections on Nepal鈥檚 Maoist Movement from Piskar Village (2003)
    Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies,
  • Embodied Ancestors: Territory and the Body in Thangmi Death Rituals (2002)
    Territory and Identity in Tibet and the Himalayas,
  • Preliminary Etymological Notes on Thangmi Clan Names and Indigenous Explanations of their Provenance (2000)
    The Journal of Nepalese Literature, Art and Culture,
  • Appropriate Treasure: Reflections on Women, Buddhism, and Cross-Cultural Exchange (1999)
    Buddhist Women Across Cultures,

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