(In progress) Documenting performance-based cultural heritage in times of crisis, edited book with Barbara Čurda. Amsterdam University Press.
(In progress) ‘Dancing gods, dancing phones and silent archives: the politics of heritage performance documentation and social media in Nepal’, in Documenting performance-based cultural heritage in times of crisis, edited book with Barbara Čurda. Amsterdam University Press.
(submitted for review) ‘”From Issue to Agent”: Gendered Spaces, Representational Labour and Street Theatre in Janakpurdhām’. Women’s Studies. An Interdisciplinary Journal.
(forthcoming, 2027) The temple and the stage: sacred heritage, performance and invisible placemaking in Janakpurdhām. Springer. (Single authored research monograph).
(forthcoming, 2026 ). ‘Staging identity: theatre and the expansion of public culture in Janakpurdham’ in Contemporary Nepal Studies edited by Mark Turin, Stefanie Lotter, Jeevan Sharma and Liana Chase.
2026. ‘Gendered stages of Nepal: invisibility, patriarchy and recognition in female artists’ struggle for space across folk and contemporary theatre’. In Religion, Performances and Democracy: Challenges to Cultural Freedom in South Asia (1940 to present) edited by Manujendra Kundu. Routledge.
2024. ‘Heritage-making and the Revival of Jhijhiya in Janakpurdham’. Rigvedic Himalaya, 1(1), 17-34.
2022. ‘Nepali Theatre beyond Nepal: identity, education, experimentation’, The Record Nepal, July 27 (online journal).
2018. ‘Rehearsing for Life’. Theatre of Social Change in Nepal. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. (Single authored ethnographic monograph based on my PhD research and revisits).
2016. ‘Protests, Space and Creativity: Theatre as a Site for the Affective Construction of Democracy in Nepal’. In Political Change and Public Culture in Nepal, edited by Michael Hutt and Pratyush Onta, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
2010. Rehearsing for Life. Theatre for Social Change in Kathmandu, Nepal. PhD Thesis, SOAS.
2010. ‘Catchy Melodies and Clenched Fists. Performance as Politics in Maoist Cultural Programs’. In The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal. Revolution in the Twenty-First Century edited by M. Lawoti & A. Pahadi, 52-72. New York, Routledge.
2007. ‘Dramas of Development’: Theatre for Development or the Development of Theatre?’, Studies in Nepali History and Society 12(2):321-47.
Selected Presentations & Conferences
‘Relating heritage and activism: placemaking, solidarity and erasure in South Asia”, panel co-convener with Christiane Brosius and Stefanie Lotter; member of the conference academic committee, ECSAS 2025, Heidelberg 1-4 October.
‘Festivals and melas: activism and aesthetic commons in Janakpurdhām’ paper presented at the panel above, ECSAS 2025, Heidelberg 1-4 October.
Invited class. ‘Jhijhiya dance and heritage-making in Janakpurdhām’. Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, 13 June 2024.
‘Living heritage, performance and placemaking’ – International Heritage as Placemaking Spring School 2024, organised in collaboration with Echos in the Valley, March 20-25 2024, co-organiser and speaker.
Invited workshop. January 2022, 2023, 2024. Mountview Academy: ‘Theatre in Nepal: between heritage,
politics and development’. MA Theatre for Community and Education.
‘Heritage and placemaking in Janakpurdham’, CATS Forum presentation, Heidelberg 20 January 2023.
‘The identity and politics of street theatre in Janakpurdham’. Michael Hutt Celebration Symposium at Social Science Baha, Kathmandu 26-28 July 2023 (online presentation).
‘The Revival of Jhijhiya dance in Janakpur’. European Association of South Asian Studies Conference, paper, Turin 26-29 July 2023.
Invited talk. ‘Theatre and social change’, Trichandra College, Kathmandu 16 May 2023.
‘Documenting performance-based cultural heritage in times of crisis’, panel co-convenor with Barbara Čurda, University of Aix en Provence, SIEF conference, Brno 7-10 June 2023.
‘Dancing gods and dancing phones: heritage performance documentation and social media in Nepal’, paper presented at the panel above, SIEF conference, Brno 7-10 June 2023.
‘Placemaking and placelessness in Janakpur: ‘Saffron city’ and the subversive politics of Mithila heritage’, co-presented with Sabin Ninglekhu, Social Science Baha Conference, Kathmandu 27-29 July 2022 (online presentation).
‘Alter-heritage: imagining South Asia from the margins’ panel co-convened with Stefanie Lotter, EASA Conference, Belfast 26-29 July 2022.
Public lecture. ‘The world of theatre for social change’. North South Collectives, Biratnagar, 24 April 2022.
Invited talk. Sisters! Fight for the Living Wage, Oxford International Women’s Festival 2019.
‘Not an ornament but a body part of the nation’: cultural art mediating ancestral belonging and social change in Nepal, ASA (UK Association of Social Anthropologists) Conference in Oxford 18-21 September 2018.
Invited talk. ’Maoist Cultural Programmes’, SOAS CCLPS panel on ‘Contemporary Cultures of Resistance’, January 2014.
‘Protests, Space and Creativity: Cultural Performances as Sites for the Construction of Democracy in Nepal’ presented at the conference on ‘The Creation of Public Meaning during Nepal’s Democratic Transition’ organized by the SOAS (London), July 2012.
‘Neither a development project nor a Catholic mission: working with competing moralities in Nepal’ presented at the RAI (Royal Anthropological Institute) Conference, June 2012.
‘Kamlari Voices and Movements: repositioning Tharu indigenous artistic knowledge into global activism’ presented at the ASA (UK Association of Social Anthropologists) Conference in New Delhi, April 2012.
Invited class. ‘Theatre for Social Change in India and Nepal’, BA Contemporary South Asia, Department of South Asia, convened by Prof. Francesca Orsini, 2008.
‘Street theatre for Social Change’, presented at Nepal Day, organized by British Nepal Research Council, 2007.