Robert Barnett is a writer and researcher on nationality issues in China, focusing on modern history, politics, and culture in Tibet. His publications include studies of Chinese policies in Tibet, border issues, social management, language policies, women in politics, cinema, television, and religious regulations in Tibet.
He is currently Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and an Affiliate Lecturer at the Lau China Institute, Kings College, London. He founded the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University in New York, where he was Director of Modern Tibetan Studies and an Adjunct Professor of Contemporary Tibetan Studies for some 19 years. He has also taught at Princeton, INALCO (Paris), Tibet University (Lhasa), and IACER (Kathmandu).
His recent books and edited volumes include Forbidden Memory: Tibet During the Cultural Revolution by Tsering Woeser (Nebraska, 2020); Conflicting Memories: Tibetan History under Mao Retold with Benno Weiner and Françoise Robin (Brill, 2019); Tibetan Modernities: Notes from the Field, with Ronald Schwartz (Brill, 2008); and Lhasa: Streets with Memories (Columbia, 2006).
From 2004 to 2018, Barnett ran a series of training and development programs in Tibet, including six at Tibet University. He is a frequent commentator on Tibet and nationality issues in China for the BBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other media.
