Bringing together an integrated regional analysis across India and the UK, the research will examine how sustainability principles are incorporated into plant-based practices today. It will map how knowledge and material practices circulate between communities of practice, herbal medicine industries and broader conversations around environmental responsibility in healthcare.
Dr Karen O'Brien-Kop
30 May 2025
British Academy Small Grant awarded to Dr Karen O'Brien-Kop
Dr Karen O’Brien-Kop, Lecturer in Modern Asian Religions has been awarded a Small Grant for her upcoming research project, Plant ontologies, material practices, and knowledge circulations in Ayurveda: Towards sustainable futures, which will begin in July 2025.
The British Academy awarded project will investigate how ayurvedic practitioners use plant-based formulations sustainably, focusing on both traditional and alternative healthcare settings. Drawing on the ancient health system of Ayurveda, rooted in Hindu and Buddhist traditions and dating back to the first millennium BCE, the study will explore the ontological, health and spiritual beliefs that inform the use of plants in contemporary ayurvedic practice.
Through a combination of archival research, interviews and organisational data collection, the project will provide a comparative case study of ayurvedic practitioners operating in distinct cultural contexts. The research aims to contribute to current debates around sustainable futures and the role of traditional medicine systems in addressing ecological and ethical challenges in health and wellbeing.
Dr O’Brien-Kop’s work focuses on the intersection of religion, health, and the environment in modern Asian religious and philosophical traditions.
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Lecturer in Modern Asian Religions