Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities

Join our team!

(New)* Vacancy for Research Assistant Royal Thimphu College - Official website - Bhutan's first and only A+ (Excellent) accredited institution.

📢The latest Issue of Druk Journal is out!

In eastern Bhutan, climate change is not just a shift in weather—it's a disruption in the sacred cycles that shape daily life, spiritual belief, and ancestral memory. In this evocative ethnographic reflection, Kinley Dorji explores how the people of Lhuentse experience climate change not as data points but as ruptures in ritual, rhythm, and relationships with the land. As rain falls out of season and floods erase homes, villagers turn to protective deities and ancient rituals—not just for solace, but for survival.

Read more on:
https://drukjournal.bt/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/An-Ethnographic-Reflection-of-Encountering-Climate-Change.pdf

A research update, in the form of a blog, on the EATWELL project, of which HCEH is thrilled to be collaborating partner, by Project Lead Wim van Daele

The nutrition and gut microbiome phase of EATWELL got finally started! On Sunday 23 March, we finally left to Laya, one of the highest and most remote settlements in the Bhutanese Himalayas. The people from Laya are highly mobile as a semi-nomadic people engaged in yak herding, horse transport and trading.We left with 11 Bhutanese research assistants (RA’s), Dr Neyza...

Join us on the EATWELL project -- https://www.eatwell-bhutan.net/

*(New) Vacancy for Staff Positions Royal Thimphu College - Official website - Bhutan's first and only A+ (Excellent) accredited institution.

Join us in thinking about more-than-human health.

We welcome your abstract submissions for the panel 'More-than-human health in an interdependent world' that we are convening at the Health, Environment, and Anthropology (HEAT) Conference, to be held at Durham University (UK) April 23-24, 2025. More information about the panel is below.

If you are interested in exploring this theme with us, we invite you to send your abstract of maximum 250 words via the Abstract Management Portal at latest by 13 January 2025. The website includes guidance on how to select the panel and to submit your abstract. We look forward to receiving your abstracts.

Best Wishes,

Wim Van Daele (UiA), Heidi Fjeld (UiO), Jelle Wouters (RTC), and Elena Neri (UiA)

Panel Abstract

The concepts of One Health, Planetary Health, and Eco-Health foreground the dependency of human health on the health of the environment. In scientific practice, these concepts tend to focus mostly on the scientific biological and tangible social aspects of the interdependencies between the human and non-human aspects of health, neglecting the role played by intangible and invisible other-than-human entities. Hence, we adopt the notion of “more-than-human health” to enhance attentiveness to different ontological and related (micro)biosocial practices of human and other-than-human health and well-being across the world.

This panel invites contributions that explore complex interdependencies and entanglements between human beings and visible/tangible and invisible/intangible other-than human entities that in their entanglement shape more-than-human health. We invite interdisciplinary oriented papers that examine the (micro)biosocial connections between invisible and (scientifically made) visible aspects in the more-than-human interdependent practice of crafting health and wellbeing across different situations and ontologies. We welcome particularly papers that attest to the situated (micro)biosocialities within these ontological practices in more-than-human health. This can include, but is not limited to, papers exploring entanglements between:

-ritual practices and microbiomes
-Cosmology, climate change, and changing health practices
-Supernatural entities, animals, and microbiomes
-Epigenetics, stress and food environments

and more underexplored interdependencies...

Join our growing Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities on the path-breaking EATWELL project (https://www.eatwell-bhutan.net/). Eligibility criteria and other details in the link.

Vacancy | Research Assistant- Cross-Sectional Nutrition/ Microbiome | EATWELL Royal Thimphu College - Official website - Bhutan's first and only A+ (Excellent) accredited institution.

Call for Abstracts: National Conference on Migration, Climate Change, and Societal Change in Bhutan Royal Thimphu College - Official website - Bhutan's first and only A+ (Excellent) accredited institution.

Mark your calendar! HCEH is pleased to host Professor Willem van Schendel for a global keynote on Sapiens and Others. Venue: Auditorium, RTC. All are welcome. No registration necessary. We will be livestreaming the event (registration necessary: https://icimod-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvd-qtrTwjEtaEzHOPRIZE_UVZfq3wGnWc #/registration)

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐋𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐯𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥 – 𝟏𝟐 𝐍𝐨𝐯, 𝐑𝐓𝐂

RTC and HUC-ICIMOD are pleased to host a symposium on Multispecies Migration in the Climate Changed Himalayas (Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities) from 11 to 15 November. As part of this symposium, the globally acclaimed Professor Willem van Schendel, University of Amsterdam, will deliver a key-note address titled: ‘Sapiens and Others: A Multitude of Mobilities’ on Tuesday 12 November, 9.30AM in the auditorium of RTC.

This public lecture is open to everyone, and all interested are warmly invited to attend.

Vacancy for Research Manager! Work with us on a range of research projects & collaborations on environment & society, climate change & migration, intangible cultural heritage, multispecies entanglements, and much else. As our research manager, you will be engaged in creating, planning & supervising projects, monitoring project progress, supporting researchers, implementing methodologies, and liaising with stakeholders. Detailed ToR in the link. Queries to [email protected]

(New)* Vacancy for Staff Position Royal Thimphu College - Official website - Bhutan's first and only A+ (Excellent) accredited institution.