The Department of Geography Library, at the University of Cambridge, is currently exhibiting photographs from a
research project undertaken in the Kingdom of Bhutan. This is the pilot
in a proposed series of small exhibitions showing the wide-ranging
research interests of members of the department.
The current exhibit
'Hidden Lands and Sealed Mountains: Places and Spaces in a Conservation
Landscape' illustrates the work of
Riamsara Kuyakanon Knapp, who
conducted her doctoral fieldwork on sacred natural sites and the
conservation-culture-development nexus in Bhutan with the kind support
of the Ugyen Wangchuk Institute for Conservation and Environment, Royal
Government of Bhutan.
Riamsara writes: I was raised and grew up in Thailand while it was undergoing rapid economic development and personally witnessed changing landscapes and changing human values around me. Thus I am interested in the human engagement with nature and environmental conservation, and specifically the expression of Buddhist philosophies and practices and the ways in which conservation landscapes are culturally inflected. My PhD research concerns the relationship between environmental conservation and Buddhist beliefs and practices and my research draws from and addresses theorizations in cultural landscapes and political ecology. I am interested in multi-disciplinary research and employ methods from the social and environmental sciences.
The exhibition can be viewed during
library opening hours. No appointment is required. See: http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/library/opening/ Afternoons are generally the best time to visit, as the library is quieter.
