Narrating Disaster through Participatory Research: Perspectives from Post-Earthquake Nepal

This essay describes Narrating Disaster, a collaborative research project that the authors designed in response to Nepal's 2015 earthquakes in order to document survivors' nuanced and diverse experiences of living through a natural disaster. The time-sensitive research conducted in four highland valleys of Nepal (Mustang, Manang, Nubri, and Tsum) in a chaotic, post-catastrophe environment required the development of multi-layered participatory elements: community researchers influenced the project design, had flexibility with regard to sampling procedures, determined how to present the research in the beleaguered communities, and made final decisions on interviewing styles and the most appropriate questions to ask. The authors reflect on the epistemological nature of a rapid academic response to human tragedy that could not have been accomplished without deep and meaningful research collaborations with people from the affected areas.