Dr Krishna Adhikari

Research Affiliate

Until 2023, Dr Adhikari was a researcher at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA), and the Co-Investigator on the ‘The Dalit Search for Dignity: State, Society, and Mobilization from Below in Far West Nepal’ funded by the British Academy (BA) through its Heritage, Dignity and Violence Programme (GCRF) (2019-22). The project follows on from and is built on the lesson of the ESRC-funded research project (2013-2017), 'Caste, Class, and Culture: Changing Bahun and Dalit Identities in Nepal', of which he was a co-investigator. As part of the current research, and with the support from the ESRC IAA Stages 2, 3 and 4: Kick-starting, Impact Acceleration and Top-up Awards he is also leading a study on ‘Deepening Awareness of Dalit issues in the School Curriculum in Nepal’.

From 2011 to 2013 he was a post-doctoral researcher working on the John Fell-funded project 'Mobility, Cultural Capital, and Hidden Ethnicity: The Case of Rural Brahmans in Nepal'. For three years from October 2009 he was a team member, research associate, and visiting scholar at ISCA on the AHRC-ESRC-funded research project on 'Vernacular Religion: Varieties of Religiosity in the Nepali Diaspora'. In 2007 he joined the Centre for Nepal Studies UK (CNSUK) as a researcher, and between 2010 and 2011 he was its Executive Director. At CNSUK he was mainly involved in a large-scale survey of Nepalis in the UK, popularly viewed as a ‘census’. During this period he also did freelance consultancies in the field of international development, especially on land and forest tenure reforms in Asia. In 2005 he led a national-level survey on the state of community/social mobilisation in Nepal. He advised for Nepali Media Survey 2014, a project of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, UK. He also advised for the CNSUK's Big-Lottery-funded project Ethnic Minority and Social Mobility Project (2015-2016). He is coordinating a Master's dissertation scholarship, and supervising a PhD student from Lumbini Buddhist University and a Master's student from Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal. He is currently serving as the General Secretary of the Britain-Nepal Academic Council (2014-2018).

Krishna obtained his doctorate from the International and Rural Development Department of the University of Reading, on the dynamics of social capital and community-based institutions, for which he carried out fieldwork in southern Nepal. He also has a social science Master's Degree from the University of Goteborg, Sweden and an MBA degree from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Previously he worked for 12 years in Nepal, first as a civil servant in local government units and then as a community development worker, manager, and researcher in various non-governmental projects. These included working in Nepal as a Professional Advisor in the Self-reliance Development of the Poor by the Poor Project (SRDPPP), supported through DFID’s Enabling the State Programme (ESP) and acting as coordinator of a community development project funded by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). He also has teaching experience of over one and a half years. 

More details here.

Contact details: krishna.adhikari@anthro.ox.ac.uk

Research interests

Caste and ethnic relations and identity politics; Dalits and social transformation in South Asia; education, employment, and social mobility; migration and diaspora communities; poverty and exclusion; social capital and community-based institutions; international and rural development; collective action and the governance of natural resource management; mixed-methods.

Teaching

I am interested in teaching methods modules, particularly mixed methods aimed at students from qualitative backgrounds, showing them how to integrate quantitative methods into their field of studies. I led a module for postgraduate students on ‘Critical Methods in Numerical Assessments’ in 2019-20 and again in 2020-21. 

I have also been working with and supporting universities in Nepal by delivering occasional lectures, supervising and examining PhD and Master’s students, and collaborating on research projects.