Kesang Thakur
Kesang Thakur is a doctoral candidate with the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Italy. She’s part of the Political Ecology Cluster under the Lab on Area Studies for Sustainable Transformations (). Her project under the theme of “Exploring Sustainability Transformation Discourses in Asia and Africa” is supported by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, NRRP).
She’s also a visiting scholar at the South Asia Institute (SAI), University of Heidelberg. Prior to her PhD, she was involved with several ethnographic projects in the Western and Trans-Himalayas centred on themes of Buddhism, urbanization, and energy infrastructures. She holds an MA in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and BA in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University.
Doctoral Research
Kesang’s doctoral project is located in the trans-Himalayan Lahaul valley (District Lahaul and Spiti) of Himachal Pradesh, also her native place, where she’s exploring (dis)continuities between sustainability and the intimate socio-cultural and political transformations being brought about by the recently built Atal Rohtang tunnel.
Select Publications
- Co-author, “Tunnel to the Future: How Rohtang tunnel is reshaping life in Lahaul Valley”, published in Himal South Asian (October 2022)
- Author, “Tandal: A Feminist Archive of an Infrastructure in the Making”, published on Roadsides Journal (April 2021)
- Author, Himalayan community beats Covid-19” published in Third Pole (January 2021)
- Author, “Behind the Facade of Clean Mountain Towns, Kullu and Manali Struggle to Manage Waste”, published on The Wire (June 2019)
- Author, “Do the youth of the mountains matter?” published in Third Pole (April 2018)
- Co-author "Contoured Urbanism: People, Property and Infrastructures in the Indian Himalayas” published in Urbanisation,a journal by Indian Institute of Human Settlements and Sage (January 2017)
- Co- author “Chenab under Siege” published on International Rivers Network Blog (July 2015)
- Co-author “Changing the Colours of Chenab” for Himdhara Environment Collective (June 2015)
- Co-author “A Himalayan Sellout”, published on Down to Earth Magazine, Centre for Science and Environment (Feb 2015)
- Author "Small hydels: Are they really clean, green and safe?” published on India Water Portal (July 2014)
- Co-author "Report of People's Public Hearing on Industrial Pollution in Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Area" (June 2014)
- Co-author "Submerging Jaunsar Bawar, a preliminary study on the impacts of upcoming Kishau Dam in the state of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh”.