Sara Shneiderman is an Associate Professor and Ivan Head South-North Chair in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and cross-appointed with the Department of Anthropology.

Sara is a sociocultural anthropologist whose current research focuses on community resilience and disaster governance in the face of ongoing environmental, social, and political transformation in both Canada and Asia. This work is grounded in her long-term ethnographic engagement with Indigenous and other communities in Nepal, India, and Tibetan regions of China around dynamics of citizenship and belonging; cross-border mobility; conflict and political mobilization; territory and land use; development discourses and practices; and disaster aftermath and preparedness.

She regularly contributes to policy discussions about disaster risk reduction, development, governance, and politics in the Himalayas and South Asia, as well as British Columbia. She serves as advisor to several community-based organizations and government agencies both locally and globally.

View website

View publications