My research and teaching concern the interplay between disasters, (human) development and democratic politics, with a particular focus on the meanings and mechanisms of citizen participation and accountability in disaster risk reduction and response. Through interdisciplinary research perspectives, I have been examining the socio-political conditions that subject marginalised communities to an increased risk of disaster and impede their recovery from disasters.  This includes looking at the capacities and limitations inherent in various systems, including democratic governance structures, to protect individuals' rights to safety and security in the face of disasters.

Much of my empirical research focuses on South Asia and the Himalayan region, particularly Nepal, which is facing the disproportionate burden of climate-induced disasters.

With my PhD in Social Research Methods, I am also interested in methodological, political and ethical dimensions of 'doing research' in disaster and conflict contexts. To that end, I recently served as a Co-Investigator on a British Academy-funded collaborative and comparative research project entitled 'Reordering ethics and knowledge production in conflict and disaster-affected contexts', which examines the politics of research ethics and knowledge production in Nepal, Colombia and Balkans.

I have used the lens of disaster and health justice to research public health emergencies. Towards that end, I recently completed a two-year collaborative project (September 2021-September 2023), funded by the Atlantic Equity Challenge based at International Inequalities Institute (LSE), which looks at the role of civil society activism in constructing alternative narratives of care, accountability and justice for Nepali labour migrants who are disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

My PhD research, completed in 2019 from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), used ethnographic and interview data to examine the politics of citizen participation and accountability following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes.

Prior to my PhD journey, I worked as a Research Manager at the American University's Center on Health, Risk and Society, where I worked on a number of projects related to social and structural determinants of health and well-being. As part of this experience, I have published on the processes and impacts of community mobilisation in preventing HIV infection among female sex workers in southern India.

My research on disasters and global health has been published in leading journals, including Disasters, Social Science & Medicine, World Development, Big Data & Society, and the International Journal for Disaster Risk Reduction. 

I started my professional career as a development worker and civil society organiser in my home country, Nepal, which continues to shape my research, teaching and supervisory engagements. 

PhD, Social Research Methods, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK

MA, International Development and Social Change, Clark University, USA

MBA, Kathmandu University School of Management, Nepal

B Com (Honours), University of Delhi, India

Disaters and Development; Citizen Participation and Accountability; Research Methodologies; Disaster Ethics; Ethnography of Disasters.

Ethnography of disasters and development

Participatory and action research

Ethics of disaster research

HCRI20012 Disasters and Development

HCRI63321 Citizen Participation, Accountability and Advocacy in Disasters

HCRI79000 Disaster Preparedness

HCRI60170 Research, Evaluation and Methods