Institute for Global and International Studies

Tibet Governance Project

The Tibet Governance Project advances scholarship, research, and new perspectives on key issues of governance and public policy in contemporary Tibet. The program promotes research initiatives and program activities that produce fresh insights, analyses, and approaches to understanding the social, economic and institutional challenges confronting the Tibetan region.

Research areas encompass not only technical and institutional aspects of governance relating to public management and administration, but also larger questions concerning the negotiation and allocation of resources, the dynamics of social agency and formations of public authority. Current research projects include language use and policy; and resource management and sustainable livelihoods.

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Project Team

Dr. Tashi Rabgey, Director, Tibet Governance Project, and Research Professor of International Affairs. Before joining the Elliott School, Professor Rabgey was co-director of the University of Virginia Tibet Center and a faculty member of East Asian Studies. She has taught comparative politics and in global development studies, and has conducted fieldwork in Tibet over the past fifteen years. She holds law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, and a PhD in legal and political anthropology from Harvard University. She is currently a Fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on US-China Relations.

Manla Kyi, Non-residential Research Fellow, Tibet Governance Project. Manla Kyi is a leading specialist in Tibetan education and language policy issues and was the Co-Chair of the Tibet Governance and Practice Forum on Language Policy and Practice, held in Montreal, Quebec, in May 2012. She has taught at Qinghai Nationalities University and has conducted field research throughout the Tibetan region. She holds a Masters of Education from Columbia University and is a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong. She currently serves as Machik Director in the People's Republic of China.

Advisory Group

Dr. Losang Rabgey, Executive Director, Machik. Dr. Losang Rabgey holds a PhD in gender studies and anthropology from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies where she was a Commonwealth Scholar. She has conducted fieldwork in the Tibetan region for over a decade and is a specialist on Tibetan gender issues, social entrepreneurship and community development. She was recognized as an Emerging Explorer by the National Geographic Society in 2006, and as a Asia Society Young Leader in 2007.