I have worked on questions of anthropology, gender and social change in Himalayan Asia since 1973. My present interests in the political and economic pressures on local ethnic communities have evolved directly from earlier commitments to understanding how society and culture interact through time, and how individual people's lives are framed within these contexts, with particular reference to gender, women's lives, and social justice. In approaching these issues, I attend most carefully to language and ritual, broadly conceived. Most of my evidence is drawn from interviews, life histories, and personal stories to explore how people talk about what concerns them. In addition, I am curious about the different ways in which people relate their own experiences and reflections to larger cultural and esthetic frameworks, such as those of ritual, religion and song. I have done research across much of north central Nepal, among Sherpa and, especially, Tamang communities there. My teaching reflects these interests directly: my core teaching lies in anthropology, gender and Himalayan studies. I also founded and continue to supervise the Cornell-Nepal Study Program, which is a joint research and training initiative with the national Tribhuvan University, where both American and Nepali students and scholars study and undertake field research from a residential community base in Kirtipur, Nepal.