Senior Lecturer in Religion and Anthropology/Sociology
413-597-2464
Hollander Hall Rm 338
At Williams since 2003
Program Affliations
Public Health
Science and Technology Studies
Asian Studies
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Education
B.A. Harvard University (1988)
M.A. Harvard University (1995)
Ph.D. Harvard University (1998)
M.A. Harvard University (1995)
Ph.D. Harvard University (1998)
Areas of Expertise
- Gender & Sexuality in Buddhism
- Mindfulness: Practice & Applications
- Anthropology of Buddhism & South Asia
- Reproductive Justice
- Maternal Mortality
- Medical Anthropology
- Biomedicine, Bodies, & Sexuality
- Irrigation & Social Power
- India & Himalayas
Courses
REL 246 / ANTH 246 / ASIA 246 / WGSS 246 TUT
India's Identities: Nation,Community, & Individual (not offered 2025/26)REL 248 / ANTH 248 / ASIA 248 / GBST 248 / WGSS 249 SEM
Body Politics in South Asia: Gender, Sex, Religion, and Nation (not offered 2025/26)REL 256 / ANTH 256 / ASIA 256 / WGSS 256 SEM
Buddhism, Sex, & Gender: #MeToo Then and Now (not offered 2025/26)ANTH 258 / WGSS 225 / ASIA 258 / REL 258 TUT
Buddhism, Social Change, & Reproductive Justice in the Anthropocene (not offered 2025/26)ANTH 272 / WGSS 272 SEM
Sex and the Reproduction of Society (not offered 2025/26)ANTH 371 / STS 370 / ENVI 371 SEM
Campus and Community Health in Disruptive Times (not offered 2025/26)Scholarship/Creative Work
Select Publications:
- Pregnancy, Birth, and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States. Co-authored by Davis-Floyd R, Gutschow K, and Schwartz D. Medical Anthropology. May 14, 2020.
- Going ‘Beyond the Numbers’: Maternal Death Reviews in India. Medical Anthropology 2016 35(4): 322-337.
- On Counting and Miscounting Maternal Mortality: Metrics and What Matters in Global Health. In Armut & Gesundheit (Poverty & Health). Martin Tamcke, ed. University of Goettingen: Goettingen University Press, 2016. ebook here
- From Home to Hospital: The Extension of Obstetrics in Ladakh. In Medicine Between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Grounds. Vincanne Adams, Mona Schrempf, and Sienna Craig, eds. London: Berghahn Press, 2012. Pp. 185-214. chapter link here
- Global Policies and Local Implementation: Maternal Mortality in Rural India. Co-authored with Dr. Padma Dolma. In Global Health – A Challenge for Interdisciplinary Research. Martin Kappas, Uwe Gross, and Dermot Kelleher, eds. Goettingen: Goettingen University Press, 2012. chapter link here
- Women and Buddhism. In Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2012. Oxford University Press Digital Library.
- The Politics of Being Buddhist in Zangskar: Partition and Today India Review 5 (3–4): 470–498. 2006.
- A Landscape Dissolved: Households, Fields, and Irrigation in Rinam, Northwest India. In Space and Territory in the Buddhist Himalaya. Niels Gutschow, Charles Ramble, and Ernst Steinkellner, eds. Vienna: Franz Steinkellner Verlag, 2003. Chapter Download Here
- Being a Buddhist Nun: The Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas. Harvard University Press, 2004. [Winner: Sharon Stephen’s Book Prize, AES, 2005]
- Behind the Ice Wall. Anthropologist for a Canal+ Discovery Channel Documentary. [Winner: Grand Jury Prize–Banff Mountain Film Festival 1995, 1st Prize–Telluride Mountain Film Festival, Honorable Mention: New York Film Festival 1995]
Awards, Fellowships & Grants
- 2020-21. National Geographic Society Award ($99,847). “Climate Change Adaptation: By the People & For the People”, will engage one fifth of Zangskar’s population—namely youth and women––in climate crisis adaptation and advocacy through participatory ethnographic research, citizen science camps, and participatory resource management that should result in climate smart policy and lessons for the broader Himalayan region.
- 2011 – 16. Goettingen University Grant. ‘Beyond the Numbers’. 5 year grant to study maternal and neonatal deaths and audits in Ladakh, India.
- 2009-11. Advanced Researcher Fellowship. Humboldt Foundation, Germany. At Heidelberg University and University of Goettingen. 18 months.
- 2008, 2006. Faculty Center For Media Technologies. Williams College. To create Archive Z, a digital database of ethnographic images from the Himalayas.
- 1997-00. Junior Fellow, Harvard University Society of Fellows
Professional Affiliations
American Anthropological Association
Ladakh Studies Association