Dr Rathiulung Elias KC
Visiting Research Fellow, September - November, 2025
Home institution: University of Edinburgh
Rathiulung Elias KC (Thiu) is a Naga theologian exploring the intersections of world Christianity, indigenous epistemologies, and ecological thought. His PhD at the University of Edinburgh critiqued anthropocentric framings of Christology, drawing from indigenous cosmology and relational worldviews. He has studied and taught in Seoul, Vancouver, and Edinburgh. He also worked as a Teaching Fellow at the School of Divinity and Project Manager at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI), where he led interdisciplinary events on theology of nonhumans and on fostering networks with local churches. He initiated the Researching Indigenous Studies and Christianity (RISC) network aimed at developing connections and resources for indigenous-centred scholarship. He serves as an Area Editor (Modern/Global Christianity) for Religious Studies Review and contributes to both academic and public discourse through his publications and two podcast channels: The Contemplative Tribal and Voices of World Christianity.
Project title: Knowledge, Nature, and Power in Indigenous Digital Landscapes: A Public Theology from the Frontier
While digitality is increasingly accepted as the normative architecture of contemporary public life, this research turns to the frontiers it produces, particularly within indigenous digital landscapes. The project evaluates these landscapes as offering a rich site for exploring the power dynamics, epistemological tensions, and anthropocentric assumptions embedded in digital culture. It examines how indigenous actors navigate these digital spaces, where concepts of knowledge, nature, and power are being contested, negotiated, and reimagined. Foregrounding indigenous digital culture surfaces key concerns for public theology: the risk of epistemicide (the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems), the role of nonhuman agents in digital publics, and the persistence of political paternalism in conservation efforts across indigenous territories. These issues, arising from the digital frontier, must be accounted for in any discourse on the “common good.” The project offers a theoretical and theological intervention, informed by prior ethnographic research among upland indigenous communities in Manipur (India), and positioned within broader interdisciplinary and indigenous studies literature.