Jenny Bentley
engaged researcher
Jenny Bentley is a socio-cultural anthropologist (PhD University of Zurich), based in Darjeeling, India, with 15 years of fieldwork experience and 10 years of experience in engaged anthropological research with the Lepcha community in Sikkim and West Bengal, India (amongst others funded by the swissuniversities Knowledge to Action grant), with the multi disciplinary design company Echostream. She is an active member of Interface, the engaged anthropology committee of the Swiss Anthropological Society. Her PhD research gives analytical insight into an Lepcha understanding of an enchanted landscape, ritualised interactions with other-than-human beings, and epistemologies of protection and endangerment within the fragile Himalayan environment (funded by the Forschungskredit of the University of Zurich and the Janggen Poehn Stiftung). Her vantage point is as an outsider and academic with long-term engagement in the community. She is fluent in English and Nepali, can write and read Lepcha and understand basic conversations. She is also co-founder of “Decolonising learning circles”, a non-hierarchical online learning space.
Bentley, J. forthcoming. Guardians of the Lands and Water. Rituals, Vulnerability, and Indigenous Belonging among the Himalayan Mútunci. Zürich: Seismo / Gangtok: Rachna Publications.
Bentley, J. 2024. “Negotiating Sacred Himalayan Landscape. Contested Knowledge Production on Environment, Dams, and the Deities’ Wrath in Sikkim.” In S. Kumagai, A. Balikci-Denjongpa, F. Pommaret, and M. Alvarez-Ortega (Eds.) Traditional Neighbours, Different Modernities in the South-Eastern Himalayas: Bhutan, Sikkim, and the Mon Region. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press.
Bentley, J. 2021. Protectors of the Land and Water: Citizenship, Territory, and Vulnerability among the Lepcha in Sikkim and West Bengal. Asian Ethnicity 22 (2): 330–352.
Bentley, J & T. Mehta. 2021. Mobile Interpretation Centres at the Forefront of Conversation. This is Distributed Design: Making a new local & global design paradigm. Distributed Design Platform.
Bentley, J. 2020. Guardians of the land and water. Rituals, vulnerability and Indigenous belonging among the Himalayan Lepcha. Doctoral Thesis. University of Zurich: Zora.
Bentley, J. 2017. ‘Nationalismus und Ausgrenzung per Ausweis. Identitätsfragen in Sikkim.’ Südasien 4.
Bentley, J. 2014. ‘The king’s ritual and the religious power of the untamed.’ Bulletin of Tibetology 50 (1&2): 133–52.
Bentley, J. 2011a. ‘Ambivalence of change: Education, eroding culture and revival among the Lepcha of Sikkim.’ In Buddhist Himalaya: Studies in religion, history and culture. Volume II: The Sikkim Papers, edited by A. Balikci and A. McKay, 179–90. Proceedings of the Golden Jubilee Conference of the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology Gangtok, 2008. Gangtok: Namgyal Institute of Tibetology.
Bentley, J. 2009/10. ‘Narrations of contest: Competition among representatives of Lepcha belief and Guru Rinpoche in Sikkim.’ Bulletin of Tibetology 45 (2) & 46 (1): 135–160. Series 1. The thunder dragon and the hidden land: Recent research on Sikkim and Bhutan, edited by S. Mullard. Bhutan-Sikkim Panel held at the 12th Seminar of the IATS, Vancouver, 2010.
Bentley, J. 2008. ‘Láso Múng Sung. Lepcha oral tradition as a reflexion of culture.’ Bulletin of Tibetology 44 (1&2): 99–138.
Bentley, J. 2007. ‘‘Vanishing Lepcha’ – change and cultural revival in a mountain community in Sikkim.’ Bulletin of Tibetology 43 (1&2): 57–78.
Mehta, T. & J. Bentley. 2021. Leveraging Indigenous Knowledge, Collaboration, and Emergent Technology. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, 442–447.