Karine Gagné
Associate Professor
College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, Guelph Institute of Development Studies, Social Practice and Transformational Change, Sociology & Anthropology
About
I am an anthropologist, and my ethnographic research is based primarily in the region of Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas where I examine issues such as climate change, ethics of care, human-animal relationships, state formation, citizenship, and climate knowledge.
My work on climate change and the production of climate knowledge examines how communities are affected by and respond to climate change, specifically how their capacity to adapt intersects with their recognition and inclusion by the state. I am also interested in how insights regarding the impact of climate change on bodies of ice emerge from mobility and physical engagement with mountain environments, and how these insights contrast with knowledge generated through remote technologies.
My work on human-animal relationships currently examines how state production in border areas impacts animal conservation. I am also interested in the colonialism of wildlife photography.
My earlier ethnographic work in Ladakh has explored the practices and beliefs through which an ethics of care for the environment and for nonhumans is shaped and nurtured and how this ethics evolves under state production projects. This has led to the publication of my monograph, Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas, for which I received the James Fisher Prize.
My interests include supervising graduate students pursuing research in the anthropology of the environment, infrastructure, climate change, the politics of environmental knowledge, conservation, multimodal anthropology, and human-animal relationships.
Keywords: Climate Change, Ethics of Care, Human-Animal Relations, Environment and Infrastructure, Citizenship, Environmental Knowledge.
Select Publications & Achievements
Gagné, Karine. 2025. “What Road? I Built It Myself on My Way Here”: Roads, Wars and the Infrastructure of Citizenship in the Indian Himalayas.” In Campbell, B., M. Cameron, T. Subba (eds). The Routledge International Handbook of Himalayan Environments, Development and Wellbeing. London: Routledge.
Gagné, Karine. 2025. The Feel of Climate Change: Attuning to the Shifting Ice of the Zanskar River. Current Anthropology 66 (1): 147-154.
Gagné, Karine, and Georgina Drew. 2024. Vital Matter: Icy Liveliness in the Anthropocene. Social Anthropology 32 (1): 1–12.
Gagné, Karine. 2024. Vital Bodies: Tales of Intimate Encounters with Climate Change in Icy Ecologies. Social Anthropology 32 (1): 13–29
Gagné, Karine and Stanzin Chostak. 2024. Climate Change beyond Technocracy: Citizenship and Drought Practices in the Indian Himalayas. The Journal of Peasant Studies 51(5): 1141–63.
Gagné, Karine and Jigmat Lundup. 2024. Snow Leopards, Checkpoints, and Roads: Negotiating Selective Legibility in Hemis National Park, India. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 25 (2): 102–28.
Finnis, Elizabeth, Raquel Archie, Sydney Margarit, Autumn Perry, Karine Gagné, Travis Steffens, Jess Auerbach, and Tad McIlwraith. 2023. Multi-Course and Faculty-Student Collaboration: Reflections on Implementing a Qualitative Research Project with Undergraduate Students. Teaching Anthropology 12 (2): 14–26.
Inkpen, D., M. Dicker, L. Andrew, D. S. Dahl, G. Desmarais, K. Gagné, et al. 2023. Mountains as Homeland. In McDowell, G., M. Stevens, S. Marshall, et al. (eds) Canadian Mountain Assessment: Walking Together to Enhance Understanding of Mountains in Canada, 129-177. Calgary: University of Calgary Press
Augsten, Leanna, Gagné, Karine, and Su, Yvonne. 2022. The Human Dimensions of The Armed Conflict and Climate Risk Nexus: A Review Article. Regional Environmental Change, 22 (42): 1-19.
Gagné, Karine. 2022. Momo Parties: Crafting Dumplings, Knowledge, and Identity in the Field. In Neufeld, H. T. and E. Finnis (eds), Recipes and Reciprocity: Building Relationships in Research, 1-21. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
Gagné, Karine. 2022. «Si seulement la guerre avait été un peu plus longue» : Géopolitique, routes, et infrastructure de la citoyenneté dans l’Himalaya indien. Anthropologie et Sociétés 46 (1): 109–132.
Gagné, Karine. 2021. The Vanishing of Father White Glacier: Ritual Revival and Temporalities of Climate Change in the Himalayas. In Haberman, D. (ed), Understanding Climate Change through Religious Lifeworlds, 183-207. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Gagné, Karine. 2020. The Materiality of Ethics: Perspectives from a Himalayan Anthropocene on Water and Reciprocity. WIREs Water. 6(5): 793-808.
Gagné, Karine. 2019. Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Gagné, Karine. 2019. Waiting for the Flood: Technocratic Time and Impending Disaster in the Himalayas. Disasters. 43(4): 840-866.
Gagné, Karine. 2019. Deadly predators and virtuous Buddhists: Dog population control and the politics of ethics in Ladakh. Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 39(1): 9-25.
Gagné, Karine. 2019. Climat. in Anthropen. Le dictionnaire francophone d’anthropologie ancré dans le contemporain. https://revues.ulaval.ca/ojs/index.php/anthropen/article/view/30587
Gagné, Karine. 2017. Building a Mountain Fortress for India: Sympathy, Imagination and the Reconfiguration of Ladakh into a Border Area. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 40(2):222-238.
Gagné, Karine. 2016. Cultivating Ice Over Time: On the Idea of Timeless Knowledge and Places in the Himalayas. Anthropologica 58(2): 193-210.
Gagné, Karine and Mattias Rasmussen. 2016. An Amphibious Anthropology: The Production of Place at the Confluence of Land and Water. Anthropologica 58(2): 135-149.
Gagné, Karine, Mattias Rasmussen and Ben Orlove. 2014. Glaciers and Society: Attributions, Perceptions and Valuations. WIREs Climate Change. 5(6): 793-808.
Opportunities for Grad Students
Fellowship: Multimodal Anthropology and Climate Change in the Himalayas
We offer one fellowship of up to $6,000 per year for two years to join a project on multimodal anthropology and climate change in the Himalayas. The successful applicant will conduct a research project in a field site of their choice in either India, Bhutan or Nepal.
The project will investigate how multimodal methods can contribute to discussions about climate change and climate justice in the Himalayas. The project can focus on the use of photography, digital video, interactive media, or digital storytelling. Collaborative initiatives, with research participants directly involved in producing multimodal outputs, will be especially welcome.
The student will pursue a Master’s Degree in Public Issues Anthropology at the University of Guelph under the co-supervision of Prof. Gagné (University of Guelph) and Prof. Philippe Messier (University of Prince Edward Island).
Graduate Student Supervision
Current Students
As Supervisor
Nigel Marimuthu (MA Public Issues Anthropology), Spots of the Ghost Cat: A Multispecies Approach to Ladakhi Snow Leopard Tourism (advisor)
Tenzing Palmo (MA Public Issues Anthropology), Prefabricated House: Understanding Infrastructure and Place with The Nomads of Changtang, Ladakh (advisor)
Tehzeeb Bano (PhD Social Practice and Transformational Change, Collaborative Specialization in International Development Studies), Indigenous Mountainous Communities in Gilgit Baltistan: Responding to Climate Change; Challenges Using Indigenous Knowledge (advisor)
Alejandra Valentina Gonzalez Rodriguez (PhD Population Medicine Collaborative Specialization in One Health), Travelling Fido: Perceptions, motivations, and practices related to international dog rescues (Co-advisor with Prof. Katie Clow)
As Committee Member
Rachel Davis (MA Public Issues Anthropology), The Effects of Climate Change on Mental Health and Behaviour for Visible Minority Urban Youth (committee member)
Former Students
As Supervisor
Nabeela Thamid (MA Public Issues Anthropology), Use of Social Media in the July 2024 Student-People’s Uprising in Bangladesh (co-advisor with Prof. Satsuki Kawano)
Gabriella Richardson (MA Public Issues Anthropology), One Panthera Onca and Six Jaguars: Jaguar Conservation in the Anthropocene (advisor)
James Roszel (MA Public Issues Anthropology), Influences of Cultural Pedagogies and Activism on Environmental Policy Change in Vanuatu (advisor)
Leanna Augsten (MA Public Issues Anthropology), The Gender Dimensions of Climate Change in Ladakh: Impacts, Challenges, and Knowledge (advisor)
Brittany Schaefer (MA Public Issues Anthropology), Rock Climbing on the Niagara Escarpment: Emerging Entanglements of Care at the Crag (advisor)
As Committee Member
Janna Cutting (MA Public Issues Anthropology), Anishinaabe Storytelling for Coping and Adapting to Climate Change Impacts (committee member)
Cameron Anderson (MA Public Issues Anthropology), Indigenous Languages in Canada: Revitalization as Reconciliation in a Colonial Country (committee member)