Michael Heneise (Kohima Institute)

Michael Heneise is an American anthropologist exploring indigenous religion, ecological knowledge, and medical pluralism in the Asian highlands. He is co-founder and director of the Kohima Institute, a research center in the Eastern Himalayas launched in 2013 working primarily in indigenous health systems, environmental conservation, museum anthropology, and ethno-linguistics; and is co-editor of the Highlander Journal, an open access peer reviewed journal published by the University of Edinburgh. In 2017 he launched Highlander Books, an international open access academic press that works in tandem with the journal; and in 2018 he saw the publication of his monograph Agency and Knowledge in Northeast India: The Life and Landscapes of Dreams based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork among the Angami Nagas. He also edited Passing Things On: Ancestors and Genealogies in Northeast India (2014), and co-edited Nagas in the 21st Century (2017).

In 2016, he earned a PhD in South Asian Studies from Edinburgh University.

Michael is the Co-Investigator of the Phase 2 project 'Participatory Arts for Health Improvement' (India).