Associate Professor of Anthropology, Associate Chair of the Department of Cultural/Applied Anthropology Wake Forest University, USA
Steve Folmar is an Anthropologist on faculty at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He launched his ethnographic research in Nepal in 1979 and continues to do so today. For the past 24 years, he has concentrated on the life experiences of Dalit people, mainly in Lamjung District, but also in Lalitpur, Syangja and Kaski. His work has included investigations of the contribution of Dalit people to Village Tourism, Dalit identity and livelihood, Dalit identity politics, mental health and the effects of the 2015 earthquake on Dalit lives. Most recently he has attempted to illuminate the health seeking challenges facing Dalit and other marginalized people in Lamjung and the barriers to healthcare facing them. That project has evolved into a modest but significant effort to raise funds to support their efforts to improve their health, livelihood and other aspects of life. Folmar's publications include: Identity Politics among Dalits in Nepal; Being, Becoming, Belonging: Revisiting the Effects of Caste and Disaster on the Mental Health of Dalits in Nepal and; Addressing Dalit Wellbeing through Counter Ritual (forthcoming). In 2023, he organized the conference The Quest for Dignity. Dalit Rights and Dignity; Past, Present and Future at Wake Forest University. He is also co-organizer of the Global Dialogue for Dalit Studies in South Asia. Folmar has committed the last 2 1/2 decades of his career to Nepal's Dalit people with the purpose of helping them move forward into a caste-free society.
Caste discrimination or persecution, Climate-related issues, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Forced marriage, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, Journalist persecution, Land tenure disputes, Likelihood of destitution or homelessness, Mental illness, Political persecution, Prison conditions, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution, Risk of retaliation, Safe internal relocation, Sexual abuse/assault, Specialized medical services, Trafficking, Tribal discrimination or persecution, Violence against children/child abuse
Four cases involving Nepalese seeking asylum, 2 in the US and 2 in the UK. Cases involved risk to seeker based on political, caste and economic conditions.
2024 Folmar S. Being, Becoming, Belonging (II): Revisiting the Effects of Caste and Disaster on the Mental Health of Dalits in Nepal. Chapter 3 in Nepali Dalits in Transition, David N. Gellner and Krishna P. Adhikari, eds. Vajra Books, 35-59.
2018 Kiang L, S Folmar, K Gentry. “Untouchable”? Social status, identity, and mental health among adolescents in Nepal. Journal of Adolescent Research. OnlineFirst at journals.sagepub.com.
2013 Folmar S. Excluded creator or victim of karma: contesting Dalit identity in Nepal. Studies in Nepali History and Society 18(1):81-108.
2013 Folmar S. Problems of identity for hill Dalits and Nepal’s nationalist project. In Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict: Identities and Mobilization after 1990. M Lawoti, S Hangen, eds. New York: Routledge, 85-101.
2010 Folmar S. Identity politics among Dalits in Nepal. In Dalits of Nepal: Towards Dignity, Citizenship and Justice, A Guneratne, ed. Kathmandu: Social Science Baha, 73-107. Reprint of Folmar 2007 in Himalaya.
2005 Folmar S. The unpaved road to development: An example from Nepal. Practicing Anthropology 27(4):27-30.
2004 Folmar S. Contradiction, cultural tourism, development and social structure in Nepal. Southern Anthropologist 30:38-61.
1996 Folmar S. Variation and change in fertility in West Central Nepal. In Case Studies in Human Ecology, DG Bates, SH Lees, eds. New York: Plenum Publishing Corp, 251-270. Reprint of Folmar 1992 in Human Ecology.
1996 Folmar SJ, SMN Alam. Sex, condoms, and risk for AIDS in Bangladesh. In Society Health and Disease: Transcultural Perspectives, J Subedi, E Gallagher, eds. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 262-275.
1992 Folmar S. Wive's roles in fertility decision-making among Nepalese Caste-Hindus. Central Issues in Anthropology 10:39-50.