The Expert (Ph.D. Cambridge 2002, British Academy postdoctoral fellow 2003-6 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London) is a social anthropologist specializing in Nepal in particular and South Asia more generally. His acquaintance with South Asia spans over 31 years, including over ten years of researching and working in Nepal and over five years of living in India. While at SOAS, he taught an MA course on “The Anthropology of South Asia”. The Expert specializes in various aspects of Nepalese and other South Asian cultures and societies, including politics, kinship, gender, and religion.
In recent years he has been asked to comment and advise to ACCORD (Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation), providing expert knowledge and answering specific questions on various aspects relating to Nepalese society. The Expert worked with many refugees and asylum seekers from various Asian countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar while he served as Associate Durable Solutions Office in UNHCR’s Kathmandu office, Nepal (2008-9). There, he became familiar with the RSD process and UNHCR country files, and held many focus group discussions and individual interviews with refugees during which he learned about their reasons for fleeing their countries of origin. Since 2005 The Expert has been studying human rights in South Asia and to date has written over 170 expert reports that were presented in courts in the UK and the US.
The Expert’s expertise spans a wide range of topics, including human rights, the justice system, asylum seekers from Bhutan and Tibet, gender issues including gender minorities, mixed marriages, domestic violence, “honour killing”, trafficking, sectarian violence, criminal and terrorist groups, land disputes, health system, minority groups and sectarian violence, political parties and various other aspects of the politics, culture, society, and history of South Asian countries; Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The Expert’s experience in South Asia spans more than 31 years, 15 of which were spent living and working in Nepal and India. This includes extended spells of fieldwork and research, as well as work in various international organizations. The Expert became closely familiar with asylum seekers while working in UNHCR’s Kathmandu office (Nepal) during 2008-9. He has written over 170 Expert Witness Reports for UK and US courts.
Partial list of Publications
· 2010. Book Review of “Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival, and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal”, by Marie Lecomte-Tillouine. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.). 16:2, 452-453.
· 2008. Book Review of “Domestic Mandala: architecture of lifeworlds in Nepal”, by John Gray. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, (N.S.) 14: 1, 202-203.
· 2007. Inversion revisited: dai halne – a Himalayan inversion of hierarchy and trust. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 13, 845-861.
· 2007. The End of Shangri-La: Self-Perpetuating Tendencies and Invisible Displacement in the Nepalese Maoist ‘People’s War’, in Crisis of State and Nation – South Asian States Between Nation Building and Fragmentation. D. Malik and J. P. Neelsen eds., Manohar Publishers, New Delhi.
· 2006. Encompassing a Fractal World, The Energetic Female Core in Myth and Everyday Life – a Few Lessons Drawn from the Nepalese Himalaya. Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield), USA.
· 2003. Bahuns – Ethnicity without an ‘Ethnic Group’, in Ethnic Revival and Religious Turmoil, Identities and Representation in the Himalayas, M. Lecomte-Tilouine & P. Dollfus (eds.), Oxford University Press.
· 2000. A Study of the Human Settlement in the Nachal Amud Region (co-author), Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House Ltd, Tel Aviv (in Hebrew).
· 1998. Moroccan Hassidism: The Chavrei Habakuk Community and its Veneration of Saints, Ethnology - An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 351-372.
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1996. The Organisation of Space and the Symbolism of the Indo-Nepalese House in Central Nepal – Preliminary observations during fieldwork. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, No. 11, CNRS – Paris, SOAS – London, SAI – Heidelberg.