About ETHNOMAD
Our Approach
ETHNOMAD is an independent field-based conservation ethnography platform founded by Dr Tom Corcoran. It begins from a simple conviction: the future of conservation cannot be separated from the future of culture, and neither can be separated from the lives of the people who carry knowledge of place.
Landscapes are not empty. Forests, rivers, mountains, deserts, wetlands, islands, and coasts are also places of memory, livelihood, language, belief, inheritance, and belonging. To protect nature while ignoring the people who have lived with it is to misunderstand both.
Our work looks at the larger picture: how communities sustain identity under pressure, how development reshapes land and belonging, how displacement breaks cultural continuity, and how traditional knowledge continues to guide relationships between people and the natural world.
ETHNOMAD’s approach is grounded in presence, not extraction. Research is carried out through listening, participation, long-term fieldwork, and ethical documentation, with emphasis on cultural continuity, local authority, and practical relevance. Outputs include ethnographic studies, cultural impact assessments, field guides, exhibitions, training, films, public storytelling, and advisory support for institutions working in complex social and environmental contexts.
Fading Cultures is ETHNOMAD’s flagship publishing project and public field journal. It documents this work through long-form essays, photography, film, and educational resources. It does not treat culture as spectacle, nostalgia, or decoration. It presents living heritage as knowledge, resilience, and evidence of how human communities continue to adapt, remember, and endure.
Together, ETHNOMAD and Fading Cultures form a sustained, project-driven body of work dedicated to documenting living cultures, supporting ethical practice, and preserving knowledge that cannot be replaced once lost.
Our purpose is to show that the future of the planet cannot be understood through nature alone. It must also be understood through people, memory, culture, and the living knowledge of place.
Our Vision
A world where living cultures, traditional knowledge, and the relationship between people and nature are recognised as essential to our shared future, not remnants of the past.
Our Mission
To carry out field-based ethnographic research, storytelling, and advisory work that documents living cultures, supports community knowledge, and helps institutions understand the human relationships that shape conservation, development, displacement, and cultural heritage.
Fading Cultures: Our Public Field Journal
Fading Cultures is ETHNOMAD’s flagship publishing project and public field journal. It documents this work through long-form essays, photography, film, and educational resources. It does not treat culture as spectacle, nostalgia, or decoration. It presents living heritage as knowledge, resilience, and evidence of how human communities continue to adapt, remember, and endure.
Together, ETHNOMAD and Fading Cultures form a sustained, project-driven body of work dedicated to documenting living cultures, supporting ethical practice, and preserving knowledge that cannot be replaced once lost.
Our Team
Tom Corcoran
PhD, MSc, BSc, MM, ACP
Dr Tom Corcoran is the founder of ETHNOMAD, a conservation ethnographer, cultural heritage mason, writer, documentarian, and humanitarian whose work begins where official explanations fall short.
For more than four decades, he has worked among Indigenous, traditional and displacement-affected communities across Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the Americas. His fieldwork explores how people create belonging, preserve memory and maintain dignity as power shifts, environments change and familiar worlds are remade around them.
Through ethnography, conservation masonry, film, and long-form storytelling, he documents how cultural knowledge is embodied in the making and conservation of vernacular architecture, monuments, and sacred places; how forests and cultural landscapes are read; and how land, memory, and identity endure through conflict, development, and displacement.
A National Geographic Society Global Explorer, Dr Corcoran received the European Outdoor Conservation Award and the FORD Award for Conservation Films. He has also advised United Nations agencies, governments and international organisations on humanitarian response, cultural heritage, displacement and post-disaster reconstruction.
These experiences led him to establish ETHNOMAD as an independent platform for field-based cultural research, storytelling and practical action. Its purpose is not to speak for communities or preserve them as remnants of the past, but to document living knowledge honestly and help carry what matters into the future.
Sagar Dibra
Sagar Dibra is a Garo, or A·chik Mande, community member from northern Bangladesh. He holds a Master’s degree in English Literature and has experience in communications, field production and community-based cultural work.
As Manager of The Garo Experience and Nalikhali Guesthouse, Sagar coordinates bookings, guest communication, staff and daily operations. Working with the host family and local community, he helps ensure that each stay is properly organised, personally hosted and respectful of Garo cultural life.
Sagar also supports ETHNOMAD’s cultural documentation and communications work in northern Bangladesh, connecting the guesthouse with The Garo Record and related cultural projects.
Jasmine San Jose - Aniukova
Jasmine is a seasoned global explorer with a background in Business Administration and Tourism and is the driving force behind the promotions and marketing strategy at ETHNOMAD and the Fading Cultures Magazine. Born in the Philippines, she embarked on her journey of discovery at a young age, leaving her homeland to pursue a career that would span continents and oceans. Over the past decade, Jasmine has navigated the world aboard cruisers and sailboats, immersing herself in the vibrant diversity of cultures, landscapes, and traditions.
From the bustling markets of Southeast Asia to the tranquil shores of the Mediterranean, Jasmine has cultivated a unique understanding of the intricate threads that weave humanity together. Her global perspective is deeply personal—her own family’s story reflects a beautiful diversity, with roots in the Philippines and connections across three continents, scattered between Eastern Europe and the United States.
Jasmine’s experiences have instilled in her a profound appreciation for the world’s cultural richness, making her a vital advocate for the ETHNOMAD mission to document, preserve, and celebrate traditions at risk of fading away. Her work draws inspiration from her love of storytelling and her belief that every culture, no matter how small or remote, has lessons to teach about resilience, identity, and humanity’s shared journey.
Fotik Dibra
Fotik Dibra is a Garo, or A·chik Mande, community member from northern Bangladesh with extensive knowledge of village life, local farming and the surrounding landscape. He previously worked with World Vision across rural communities in northern Bangladesh.
At Nalikhali Guesthouse, Fotik is responsible for security, gardening and cultural guiding. He maintains the grounds, supports village walks and cycling activities, and introduces guests to the local landscape, plants, farming practices and community life.
Fotik also supports the Garo Knowledge Club, helping younger community members learn from elders and remain connected to Garo language, knowledge and tradition.
"Bringing Stories to Life Through the People Who Live Them
