Marohang Yakthung Limbu

Marohang Yakthung Limbu is a Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures at Michigan State University (MSU), USA. He received his PhD in Rhetoric and Composition Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso and holds two MA degrees, one in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, and another in English Literature from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He also earned two BA degrees in Education and English Literature from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

A scholar of global literacies, cultural rhetorics, and Indigenous epistemologies, Professor Yakthung Limbu is the co-founder and editor of the Journal of Global Literacies, Technologies, and Emerging Pedagogies (JOGLTEP). His monograph, Delinking, Relinking, and Linking Writing and Rhetorics: Inventions and Interventions of the Sirijanga Syllabary (2021), received the Bishnudatta-Saraswati Academic Award in 2022 in Nepal. He has also published numerous journal articles and co-edited several books, including Recovering Himalayan Cultural Rhetorics: Yakthung Mundhums, Histories, and Customary Traditions (2023, with Arjun Limbu); Integration of Cloud Technologies in Digitally Networked Classrooms and Learning Communities (2016, with Binod Gurung); Digital Rhetoric and Global Literacies: Communication Modes and Digital Practices in the Networked World (2013, with Gustav Verhulsdonck); and Emerging Pedagogies in the Networked Knowledge Society: Practices Integrating Social Media and Globalization (2013, with Binod Gurung).

Professor Yakthung Limbu’s current research is multidimensional and decolonial, focusing on Himalayan cultural rhetorics, Yakthung Mundhum epistemologies, and Indigenous knowledge systems. As a Yakthung Indigenous scholar, he examines how oral traditions, cosmological narratives, and ritual practices, such as those articulated in the Mundhum, function as epistemological, ontological, and axiological frameworks for understanding Himalayan Yakthung Indigenous identity, ecological ethics, and communal life. His scholarship critically reweaves these Himalayan Indigenous rhetorical traditions through his Delinking, Relinking, and Linking (DRL) theory, a decolonial methodology that deconstructs Western epistemic dominance while reframing knowledge through Indigenous frameworks and dialogic global engagement.

Beyond theory, Professor Yakthung Limbu, in collaboration with the Himalayan Yakthung Cultural Studies (HIYACS) research team, conducts long-term research and documentation projects to preserve and revitalize endangered Himalayan Indigenous traditions, including Yakthung oral rhetorics, matrilineal customs, and the Sirijanga writing system. His commitment to access, opportunity, and excellence, grounded in principles of belonging and inclusion, extends across local, regional, and global contexts. To deepen this commitment, he has been studying and practicing ancient Mundhums and the Old Sirijanga writing system. Notably, Professor Yakthung Limbu speaks six languages, a linguistic versatility that strengthens his ability to conduct cross-cultural research and interpret Indigenous oral texts within multilingual frameworks. His teaching and scholarship bridge multimodal composition, cloud- and crowd-based pedagogies, translingual communication, and cultures of care, all of which contribute to reimagining rhetoric and writing for a digitally networked, 21st-century global classroom.

To share his research and foster public scholarship, Yakthung Limbu founded the GLOBAL NETWORK YouTube channel, a digital platform functioning as a public peer-review space and decolonial dialogue hub. Through this channel, he collaborates with Ya-Phedangmas (oral text and ritual experts), elders, historians, educators, community leaders, and global scholars, both Western and non-Western, to address Himalayan Indigenous epistemic, ontological, and axiological concerns. His digital work extends the reach of Indigenous rhetorics and promotes the reconstruction and global recognition of Himalayan cultural rhetorical traditions. Looking forward, Professor Yakthung Limbu seeks to build upon his experiences to identify and transform pedagogical blind spots, expand global intellectual networks, and cultivate students as ethically grounded, globally engaged leaders. His ongoing scholarly mission is to advance Himalayan Yakthung cultural rhetorical traditions as vital sources of intellectual sovereignty and as significant contributions to pluriversal conversations on rhetoric, decoloniality, and Indigenous knowledge.