I am a Senior Lecturer in Disaster Studies and Global Health at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute. My main area of research and teaching is on 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. I draw on interdisciplinary debates, focusing on the political sociology of disasters, rights-based development, and participatory and deliberative democracy. 

In my empirical research, I have been examining the socio-political conditions that subject marginalised communities to an increased risk of disaster, and undermine their fundamental right to just and democratic recovery. 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.

My other area of research and teaching is on the intersection between disaster and health (in)justice. Towards that end, I recently completed a two-year collaborative project (September 2021-September 2023), funded by the Atlantic Equity Challenge based at the 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. This strand of research is also informed by my experience working as a Research Manager (2010-2014) 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.

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. 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. 

My PhD research, completed at 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.

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

HCRI78000 Research Principles and Processes in Health and Humanitarian Contexts