ANTH 364 - Global Tibet through Film

Since the Dalai Lama fled to exile in India in 1959, Tibet and Tibetans have garnered emblematic status in global debates on Indigenous cultures and human rights. The widespread Tibetan unrest and subsequent military crackdown during China’s “Olympic year” (2007-08) focused renewed international attention on the issue of Tibet in the face of China’s rise as an important political and economic power. Meanwhile, tightening political constraints and rapid development under President Xi Jinping (2013-) have ushered in a new and complicated era for the transnational Tibetan community. Yet Tibet has long been both a cosmopolitan place and an object of translocal interest and desire. This course draws on visual and multimedia approaches in anthropology and media studies to understand the global roles of Tibet and Tibetans in specific historical and ethnographic contexts. We center the analysis and production of film and video as mediums for exploring ongoing, transnational debates about Tibetanness amidst rapid sociopolitical and economic change. The course pairs film screenings with relevant ethnographic and historical readings, as well as a variety of other media such as literature, popular songs, websites, and blogs from inside and outside of China. We focus on films, especially by Tibetan filmmakers, that address the historical and contemporary diversity among Tibetans across the Himalayan region and into the diaspora, as well as the changing political economic conditions of interethnic and Chinese-Tibetan relations. Students will propose, receive training in, and workshop a semester-long short film/video project about a film on Tibetans of their choice.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 201 or ANTH 211
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Notes: This course meets the department’s area requirement.
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.