ABOUT
AGHAGHIA
INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR OF KINNAUR IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYA
CULTURAL IMMERSION & ADVENTURE TOUR GUIDE
With deep connections to the Kinnauri people since 2010, Aghaghia Rahimzadeh explores the rapid socio-environmental changes occurring in the Kinnaur region of the Indian Himalaya.
Her mission: to utilize her understanding of human-environment interactions, social implications of climate change and adaptation in Kinnaur, and ultimately, draw lessons for how mountain regions in general could successfully adapt to change and enhance their resiliency.
BIO
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR
PHD IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, POLICY & MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
Aghaghia Rahimzadeh has been working in the area of human-environmental interactions for two decades. Two time Fulbright Scholar with a doctorate in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Rahimzadeh’s research has taken her throughout the Western Himalaya. Since 2010, she has been conducting research in remote mountain communities in the district of Kinnaur in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Her work has included ethnohistorical research on environmental and social changes in Kinnaur, including the rapidly unfolding impacts of climate change, dilapidated development, and unregulated mass tourism on the region’s livelihoods and ecology.
In addition to her academic research, Dr. Rahimzadeh’s work in international and sustainable development is significant.
She has worked for the World Conservation Union (IUCN)
for the Commission on
Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP)
supporting community-based conservation and livelihood projects, served on the Secretariat of the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP), and has worked with the United Nation’s Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Tajikistan.
Dr. Rahimzadeh is currently a senior research fellow with the American Institute of Indian Studies, a fellow/scholar-advisor at the Black Earth Institute, and affiliated with the Center for Policy Research, and the Ronin Institute.
A seasoned traveler and tour guide through South Asia,
Dr. Rahimzadeh has traveled throughout South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, South and Central America. In her free time, when she isn’t writing or taking photographs, she studies Iyengar Yoga, backpacks in the California wilderness, and hikes the local trails of beloved Mt. Tamalpais.
