Kim Gutschow

Kim Gutschow is a Lecturer at Williams College (USA), with appointments in Anthropology & Religion and Affiliations with Public Health, Asian Studies, Womens/Gender/Sexuality Studies, Science & Technology Studies, and Environmental Studies. Besides teaching at Williams since 2003, she has also taught as a tenured Professor at the University of Goettingen (2011-2017), and at Wesleyan University and Brandeis University. She has published over 30 articles on maternal and neonatal health in India and the US, maternity care, reproduction, the gender dynamics of Buddhist monasticism and Tibetan Buddhism, community-based irrigation, land use practices, and social power in the Himalayas. She is the author of Being a Buddhist Nun: The Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas (Harvard, 2004) which won the Sharon Stephens Prize for Best Ethnography in 2005, and Sustainable Birth in Disruptive Times (Springer, 2021) which includes contributions from 50 authors from across the globe. Her recent collaborative and award-winning projects include: Climate Zangskar: By the People & For the People (won a National Geographic Award in 2020), Birth: From Home to Hospital and Back Home Again (Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellowship, 2009). As Project Manager, she raised over $100,000 to fund passive solar design projects, water delivery systems, local compost toilets, and other appropriate technology via the Gaden Relief Zanskar Project between 1991-2015.