Tensions in Freefall? The Study of China-Tibet Relations Today

Guest lecture with Professor Robert J. Barnett, Director, Modern Tibetan Studies Program, Columbia University.

Robert Barnett is the founder and director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia, the first Western teaching program in this field. He ran an annual summer program for foreign students at Tibet University in Lhasa from 2000 to 2005 and teaches courses on Tibetan film, television, biography, and other subjects.

Dr  Barnett has edited or written a number of books on modern Tibet, including A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Petition of the 10th Panchen Lama, Leaders in Tibet: A Directory, Cutting Off the Serpent's Head: Tightening Control in Tibet 1994-1995, and Resistance and Reform in Tibet (Indiana University Press, 1994). His most recent book is Tibetan Modernities: Notes from the Field on Social and Cultural Change, co-edited with Ronald Schwartz (Brill, 2008). In 2006 his book Lhasa: Streets with Memories was published by Columbia University Press. Recent articles include " Tsogt Taij and the Disappearance of the Overlords," in Inner Asia (2007); "Women and Political Participation in Tibet," in Janet Havnevik and J. Gyatso, eds., Women in Tibet: Past and Present ( Columbia University Press, 2006); and "The Secret Secret: Cinema, Ethnicity and 17th Century Tibetan- Mongolian Relations," in Inner Asia (2002).

In his lecture Dr Barnett will address the current situation in Tibet focusing on the China/Tibet relations. His presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. 

All are welcome.