The Work of Disaster

Crisis and Care Along a Himalayan Fault Line

Aidan Seale-Feldman

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English

University of Chicago Press
05 December 2025

Social impact of disasters; Aid & relief programmes; Mental health services

A compelling portrait of post-disaster imaginaries of repair in Nepal.

In a world of cascading disasters, what are the consequences of transient care? In 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and equally powerful aftershock struck the central region of Nepal. The disaster claimed over 9,000 lives and inspired a surge of humanitarian concern for the mental health of Nepali people. In The Work of Disaster, based on extensive fieldwork in the region, anthropologist Aidan Seale-Feldman examines what disaster generates, and the fraught relationship between crisis and care.

Moving between NGO offices, mountain trails, therapeutic interventions, and affected villages, Seale-Feldman tells the story of an emergent ""mental health crisis"" and the forms of care that followed in the disaster's wake. She also analyzes how emergency services transform the places they seek to assist; the challenges of psychiatric support provided by international organizations; and the place of mental health counseling in a modern biopolitical reality. The Work of Disaster reveals the contiguous violence and gentleness of humanitarian encounters, engaging with broader debates about worldmaking and the ethics of care.

By: Aidan Seale-Feldman
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 313g
ISBN: 9780226845395
ISBN 10: 0226845397
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 05 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Aidan Seale-Feldman is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame.

Reviews for The Work of Disaster: Crisis and Care Along a Himalayan Fault Line

“Both compelling and timely, The Work of Disaster speaks to growing bodies of scholarship in anthropology and allied fields on disaster and its aftermath. It also deftly addresses the prescient debates within the global mental health and humanitarianism fields. This is a nuanced ethnography, written with beauty and care.” * Sienna Craig, Dartmouth College *