Knowledge production is a collaborative process.
I examine human dimension of climate change in the high Himalaya from an Indigenous perspective.
I use multidisciplinary approach in my research projects, and consider plural epistemologies as a necessity, not a choice, in addressing contemporary human problems.
My current research explores the possibilities of collective survival on warming planet. It builds on my nearly two decades of climate change study in the Himalayas and long-term ethnographic study of the Sherpa community at home in the mountains and in the diaspora.
I believe that our sustainability as a Sherpa people in the wake of climate change depends on keeping our songs and stories about people, places and things alive for the next generation.
In picture: Declan, Maicen and Pasang in front of sacred Gokyo Lake, May 2023.
Official Bio:
Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Lifeways in Indigenous Asia, jointly appointed in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her current research explores possibilities of collective survival on a warming planet. It builds on her longterm ethnographic study of the Sherpa community at home and in the diaspora and her extensive study of human dimensions of climate change in the Himalayas. She previously taught at The New School in New York, Pacific Lutheran University, Penn State University, University of Washington, and Washington State University. Her interviews have appeared in Alpinist, Al Jazeera, BBC, Foreign Policy, PRI’s The World, Newsweek, and BYU Radio’s Top of the Mind among others.