Mr Lanuakum Aier

Lanuakum Aier is a research administrator and institutional development practitioner whose work focuses on the infrastructures, relationships, and field realities that sustain collaborative research in Highland Asia. His interests centre on how locally grounded institutions can support ethical scholarship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and long-term knowledge production in geographically remote and politically complex regions.

He currently serves as Deputy Executive Director and Operations Manager at The Highland Institute in Kohima, Nagaland, where he has worked since 2018. His responsibilities include institutional operations, project management, partnership development, field coordination, and postgraduate training support across initiatives involving universities, NGOs, independent scholars, artists, and community organisations.

Working across administration, field logistics, and collaborative research projects in Northeast India has shaped his interest in the operational and ethical dimensions of research practice in frontier regions. Much of Aier's work involves navigating the challenges of conducting long-term research in areas marked by infrastructural limitations, difficult terrain, and complex relationships between local communities, state institutions, and international academic networks.

At The Highland Institute, Aier has contributed to research and training platforms connected to Indigenous knowledge systems, environmental humanities, oral history, governance, public health, and documentary-based research. Although not situated within a single disciplinary tradition, his work reflects an interdisciplinary engagement with collaborative research ecologies and community-engaged scholarship. He is particularly interested in how research institutions in peripheral regions can create sustainable knowledge infrastructures that remain accountable to local histories, lived realities, and emerging generations of scholars.

Lanuakum Aier's work engages with the institutional and operational dimensions of interdisciplinary research in Highland Asia, particularly the relationship between research infrastructures, field practice, and community engagement in Northeast India.

Key areas of work include:

• •Research administration and institutional development
• •Collaborative research coordination and partnership building
• •Field logistics and ethical research support
• •Postgraduate research training and capacity development
• •Indigenous knowledge documentation
• •Environmental humanities and sustainability projects
• •Editorial coordination and publication support
• •Oral history and documentary-based research
• •Research governance and organisational systems

At The Highland Institute, Aier has contributed to interdisciplinary projects related to environmental humanities, governance, Indigenous ecological knowledge, oral traditions, public health, and participatory documentary initiatives.

His work has involved collaborations with institutions and scholars in India, Norway, Brazil, and the United Kingdom through initiatives such as "Ekologos", a global programme that brings together students, researchers, and institutions across the environmental sciences and humanities to address urgent ecological challenges. He has also contributed to community-based health and documentary projects, as well as collaborative research programmes focused on Indigenous knowledge systems and regional histories.

He has also supported the Institute's postgraduate research training initiatives, including the Postgraduate Certificate in Research (PGCertR), Summer School programmes, and field-based workshops for emerging researchers in Northeast India. His contributions include programme coordination, institutional planning, logistical management, partnership facilitation, editorial and publication support, and the ongoing development of The Highland Institute Wiki, a collaborative knowledge platform for projects, communities, languages, material culture, environmental knowledge, archives, and related themes.

• 2024 — 'How ready is the health care system in Northeast India for surgical delivery? A mixed-methods study on surgical capacity and need' in PLOS ONE, Vol. 19, Issue 6, Article e0287941. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287941
• 2024 — 'Everyday Lives of Naga Women' in Highlander, Vol. 3, Issue 2, pp. 134–141. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11002325

Alongside his operational responsibilities, Aier has contributed to workshops, conferences, lectures, documentary initiatives, and collaborative training programmes involving scholars, students, filmmakers, artists, and community organisations.

A significant part of his work involves supporting early-career researchers through programme coordination, institutional guidance, and field-based research support. In these roles, he helps strengthen locally rooted research cultures and collaborative scholarship in Highland Asia.