2025-26 Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Lecture Series

September 18, 2024 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

Niṣṭhānanda’s Lalitavistara Project: How a Buddhist Priest Gave the Newars Moveable Type, Textualized Their Spoken Language, and Fitted Much of their Narrative Literature into the Buddha’s Life (abstract)

Prof. Christoph Emmrich, University of Toronto

October 2, 2024 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

Texts on the Wall: The Sanskrit Inscriptions of the Saṃyuktāgama in the Bezeklik Cave 16 in Xinjiang (abstract)

Dr. Xiaonan Li, Peking University

October 23, 2024 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S030, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

Keeping the past alive through performing arts: music, dance and theater in the Uyghur region and the diaspora

Dr. Mukaddas Mijit, Université Libre de Bruxelles

October 30, 2024 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

Watching herds: multispecies interactions in Mongolian nomadic pastoralism (abstract)

Prof. Charlotte Marchina, National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (INALCO), Paris

November 20, 2024 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

Mirroring the Crowned Buddha(s): Intervisuality and Intertextuality of the Vairocana Imageries in Inner Asia, 9th -11th Century (abstract)

Xiaotian Yin, Harvard University

December 4, 2024 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

At the Behest of the Tibetan Emperor: The Translation Work of a Chinese Monk in Ninth-Century Dunhuang (abstract)

Prof. Meghan Howard Masang, Yale University

February 5, 2025 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

An Equine Metric for Climate Change? Using Horse Records to Understand the Medieval Climate Anomaly-Little Ice Age Transition in Inner Asian Borderlands (abstract)

Dr. Aaron Molnar, Harvard University

March 5, 2025 at 1:15 pm ET

CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

Early Herders of Inner Asia and Subsistence Transformations in the Altai (abstract)

Prof. Taylor Hermes, University of Arkansas

October 4, 2023 at 1:15 pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
A Preliminary Analysis of Core Textual Sources on Alchemical Recipes and Alexipharmics Preserved in the Brang ti lha rje’i rim brgyud kyi man ngag gser bre chen mo (abstract)
Prof. Carmen Simioli, University of Naples

November 1, 2023 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
DOMESTICATED: How cultivated species impacted ancient Silk Road societies (abstract)
Prof. Alicia Ventresca-Miller, University of Michigan

December 6, 2023 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
(Means of) Valid Cognition (pramāṇa: tshad ma) in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Sources (abstract)
Prof. Dorji Wangchuk, University of Hamburg

February 7, 2024 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Buddhism and Politics in 17th-c. Mongolia (abstract)
Prof. Agata Bareja-Starzyńska, University of Warsaw

March 6, 2024 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Why does the history of medicine matter to the study of the Silk Roads? (abstract)
Prof. Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, University of London

April 3, 2024 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Dairy Cultures and the milk paradox of the Eurasian steppe (abstract)
Prof. Christina Warinner, Harvard University

October 5, 2022 at 1:15 pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
The Gerays and Ottomans: Two Dynasties in Alliance and Rivalry (abstract)
Prof. Hakan Kirimli, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
co-sponsored by the CMES Sohbet-i Osmani lecture series

November 2, 2022 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Internationalist Romance and Translation in the Turcosphere, 1941-1964 (abstract)
Prof. Samuel Hodgkin, Yale University

December 7, 2022 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Eternal Silk Road? New Archaeological Data from Bukhara and its Hinterland (abstract)
Prof. Sören Stark, New York University

February 1, 2023 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
In the Forest of the Blind: Making and Unmaking Buddhist Asia With Faxian (abstract)
Prof. Matthew King, University of California Riverside

March 3, 2023 Friday at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Using Big Data to Think through Tibetan History (abstract)
Prof. Gray Tuttle, Columbia University (RSEA '96, IAAS '02)

April 5, 2023 at 1:15pm ET
In person, CGIS-S250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Inner Asia in the Anthropocene: Towards a Global Environmental History (abstract)
Prof. Sulmaan Khan, Tufts University

October 6, 2021 at 1:15 pm EST
Pests, Keystone Species and Hungry Ghosts: The Gesar Epic and Human - Pika Relations on the Tibetan Plateau Abstract
Prof. Emily Yeh, University of Colorado Boulder

November 3, 2021 at 1:15pm EST
Politics and Literature in Mongolia 1921-1948 Abstract
Dr. Simon Wickhamsmith, Rutgers University

December 1, 2021 at 1:15pm EST
Reincarnations of Power Amongst the Mongols: From Möngke Tengri to the Śiditü Lama Abstract
Prof. Sangseraima Ujeed, University of Michigan

February 2, 2022 at 1:15pm EST
The Transcultural Features of Mongolia’s Buddhist Manuscripts and Xylographs Abstract
Prof. Vesna Wallace, University of California, Santa Barbara

February 16, 2022 at 1:15pm EST
Ethnic, Linguistic, and Religious Diversity in Afghanistan, in Historical Perspective Abstract
Prof. Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Emerita, University of Vienna, and Associate, South Asian Studies, Harvard University

March 2, 2022 at 1:15pm EST
Deer Stone, Khirigsuur Culture: First Emergence of Inner Asian Nomadic Empires Abstract
Dr. Bayarsaikhan Jamsranjav, National Museum of Mongolia

April 6, 2022 at 1:15pm EST ~This is a hybrid event~
In person, CGIS-S250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA (Masks are required.)
This Time It Will Be Different: State Discourse and Native Response in Xinjiang, 1934-1957 Abstract
Dr. Joshua Freeman, Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Princeton University

September 16, 2020, at 1:15 PM ET
The Secret Life of a Turkic Lexeme: Grammaticalization in Modern Uyghur 
Abstract and Bio
Dr. Gülnar Eziz, Preceptor in Uyghur and Chaghatay Languages, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

October 7, 2020, at 1:15 PM ET 
A Tangle of Hair-Knots: Uṣṇīṣa Buddhas and Intertextuality in Early Tibet
Abstract
Prof. Jacob Dalton, Khyentse Foundation Distinguished University Professor in Tibetan Buddhism, UC Berkeley

November 4, 2020, at 1:15 PM ET 
The Circulation of Medicine and Notions of Healing in Early 20th Century Chinese Turkestan via Network Analysis
Abstract
Prof. Arienne Dwyer, Professor of Linguistic Anthropology, University of Kansas

December 2, 2020, at 1:15 PM ET
Smallpox Against Itself: Exploring the History of Inoculation in Tibet
Abstract
Dr. Lobsang Yongdan, Research Fellow, University of Bonn

February 3, 2021, at 1:15 pm ET 
Settler Nativization in the Inner Eurasian Borderlands of the Qing and Russian Empires
Abstract
Wei-chieh Tsai, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Shenzhen University

March 3, 2021, at 1:15 pm ET 
Scientific Exchange at the Courts of Mehmed II and Bayezid II  
Abstract                  
Robert Morrison, Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, Bowdoin College

April 7, 2021, at 1:15 pm ET  
The Invisible Outsider: Non-Chinese "Chinese" Art in the Harvard Art Museums   
Abstract
Sarah Laursen, Alan J. Dworsky Associate Curator of Chinese Art at the Harvard Art Museum

The Green-Eyed Lama (Ногоон нуден лам): Reflections on her best-selling novel and Mongolia's recent history
Description
Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, former Member of the Mongolian Parliament and former Minister of Sports, Culture and Tourism
October 16, 2019, 1:15 pm

Dangling Threads to Examine the Channels: Tales of Pulse Diagnosis in Tibetan and Chinese Literature
Abstract
William McGrath, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Manhattan College
November 6, 2019, 1:15 pm

Why Pots (Don't) Matter: Complexity in Bronze Age Eurasia
Abstract
Paula Dupuy, Assistant Professor of Anthropoogy, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan
December 4, 2019, 1:15 pm

Monastic Wealth in Qing China's Buddhist Inner Asia  
Abstract
Lan Wu, Assistant Professor of History, Mount Holyoke College
Feburary 5, 1:15 pm

Manchu Archives and the Cartographic Knowledge of the Northeast in the Huangyu Quanlan Tu
Abstract
Kicengge (Chengzhi), Professor, Institute of Liberal Arts, Otemon Gakuin University, Japan;  Visiting Research Scholar at EALC, Harvard University (April 2019 - March 2020)
February 12, 1:15 pm

Abodes of Alien Ancestors: Buddhist Geography and Genealogy in 18th-Century Beijing      
Abstract
Wen-shing Chou, Associate Professor of Chinese Art, Hunter College
March 4, 1:15 pm

Postponed until 2020-21 Lecture Series:
The Circulation of Medicine and Notions of Healing in Early 20th Century Chinese Turkestan via Network Analysis
Abstract
Arienne Dwyer, Professor of Linguistic Anthropology, University of Kansas
Date to be announced

October 3, 2018, 1:15 pm
Wisdom of Royal Glory(Kutadgu Bilig) and the Persian Connection: The Sources of a Turko-Islamic Mirror for Princes
Prof. Robert Dankoff, University of Chicago

Tuesday, October 9, 2018,4:00 pm
Recent Developments in Xinjiang
Dr. Adrian Zenz, European School of Culture and Theology
Moderated by Prof. Mark Elliott, Harvard University
Co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, and the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School.

November 7, 2018, 1:15 pm
Precious Pills and the Politics of Tibetan Learning in Qing China
Prof. Stacey Van Vleet,Indiana University, and Harvard EALC Fellow 2018-19

December 5, 2018, 5:00 pm
Joseph Fletcher Memorial LectureFrom Turco-Mongolian Dual Kingship to Power Sharing: Questions of Theory and Practice
Prof. İsenbike Togan (AM' 69, PhD '73), Boğaziçi University, Turkey

February 6, 2019, 1:15 pm
Looting and Climate Change Threaten Mongolia's Achaeology and Cultural Heritage
Dr. Julia Clark, NOMAD Science; and American Center for Mongolian Studies, Ulaanbaatar
Abstract and speaker bio here

February 20, 2019, 1:15 pm
Marks of Faith: Observation on Christian Iconography of the Sogdian Coins
Dr. Barakatullo Ashurov, Visiting Scholar in NELC, Harvard University

March 6, 2019, 1:15 pm
From Warriors to Violence: Gender Based Violence in Mongolia
Mrs. Bayartsetseg Jigmiddash (LLM '08) Fellow, Yale University; Former Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice, Mongolia (2012-2016). Speaker bio.

April 3, 2019, 1:15 pm
A Colonial Muslim History of Qing Central Asia: Revisiting Sayrāmī'sTārīkh-i Ḥamīdī
Prof. Eric Schluessel (PhD '16), University of Montana
Abstract and speaker bio here

Lectures are held on Wednesdays at 1:00 pm

October 4, 2017 Prof. Robert Mayer, Oxford University
Rethinking the Tibetan Treasure Tradition
1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S153

November 1, 2017 Dr. Berthe Jansen, Leiden University
The Legal Role of the Monastery in Pre-modern Tibet
1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S153

December 6, 2017 Prof. Christopher Atwood, University of Pennsylvania
The Manuscript Mong. 75 and Mongolian Apocalyptic Writings in the Fourteenth Century Crisis
1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S250

January 31, 2018 Prof. Kirill Solonin, Renmin University of China
How Tanguts Understood Themselves: Evidence from Native Texts
1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S250 

February 7, 2018 Prof. Beatrice Manz, Tufts University
Tribes, Armies and Empires: Reflections on the Social Morphology of Pastoral Nomads
1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S250

March 7, 2018 Prof. Imre Hamar, Eötvös LorándUniversity
The Influence of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra in Central Asia1
730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S250
Co-sponsored with the Department of South Asian Studies

April 4, 2018 Prof. Tansen Sen, NYU Shanghai
The Mongols and the Changing Patterns of Indian Ocean Interactions
1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S250

 April 18, 2018 Prof. Minoru Inaba, University of Kyoto
Did the Hindu Kush Really Kill Indians? Geography and Historical Routes Across Afghanistan
1730 Cambridge Street, CGIS South Building, Room S250

April 16, 2025 at 11:30 pm ET

Common Room, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge

Indigenous Narrative: The Dynamic Biographies of gShen-rab Mi-bo, Founder of the Tibetan Bon Religion (abstract)

HYI Visiting Scholar Prof. Konchok Tsering, School for Tibetan Studies, Minzu University of China

This event is co-sponsored with the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University.

October 19, 2022 Wednesday at 5:00pm ET ~ This event will be in person only ~
In person, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA
Renunciation and the Practice of Care: Himalayan Buddhist Embodiments of Longing and Devotion
Prof. Annabella Pitkin, Lehigh University
This event is co-sponsored by the Committee on the Study of Religion, the Mahindra Humanities Center, the Asia Center.

February 13, 2023 Monday at 4:00pm ET
In person, Yenching Common Room, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA
Curating a Museum of Stones: The “Forest of Stelae” (Beilin) and the Politics of the Past in Middle Period China (abstract)
Prof. Xin Wen, Princeton University (RSEA '11, IAAS '17)
This event is co-sponsored by China Humanities Seminar.

February 22, 2023 Wednesday at 5:00pm ET ~ This event will be in person only ~
In person, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA\
Marginal Comedy and the Production of Sutras in 9th-Century Dunhuang (abstract)
Prof. Brandon Dotson, Georgetown University
This Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum event is co-sponsored by the Committee on the Study of Religion, the Mahindra Humanities Center, and the Harvard Divinity School.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020 | 4-5:30pm
Mobility, Power, and Knowledge in the Mongol Empire
Ahmed al-Rahim, Associate Professor and Director of Islamic Studies, University of Virginia
Sponsored by The Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program and the Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies.

Exhibit: Elegy To A Uyghur Dreamscape 
Photography exhibition depicting everyday life in Xinjiang, China’s westernmost region. The photographs, taken by Lisa Ross, depict beds and their occupants outside in the open air. Sleeping outdoors is a traditional means to keep cool in the hot desert climate for many Uyghurs, Xinjiang’s Muslim-majority ethnic group. This way of life, however, is rapidly disappearing under the Chinese government’s mass detentions of many of the region’s residents. 
Read the Fairbank Center’s introduction to the exhibition, accompanied by translations in Uyghur and Chinese. 
The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Harvard University Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and the Harvard Asia Center Arts Initiative; with support from the Provostial Fund Committee, Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities 
February 25 - March 29, 2020, CGIS South Building Concourse, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA.  
View the exhibit online on the Harvard Asia Center website 

Surveilled, Detained, Disappeared: Repression in Xinjiang 
A discussion with Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch, and Rayhan Asat (HLS LLM ’16) international lawyer. Moderated by Professor William Alford, Director of East Asian Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. 
Hosted by Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, East Asian Legal Studies at HLS, and the Program of Law and Society in the Muslim World. 
Co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Harvard Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies, and the Harvard Muslim Law Students Association. 
Monday, March 9, 2020, 12pm to 1pm Harvard Law School, WCC 2009 Classroom 
Read more about Co-Sponsored Event: Surveilled, Detained, Disappeared: Repression in Xinjiang 
Read a summary of the March 9 discussion written by the Human Rights Program at HLS 

Exhibit: Three Uyghur Poets 
February 14 - March 29, 2019 
An exhibit of work by three contemporary Uyghur poets, with translations by Ph.D. Candidate Joshua Freeman, Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies. 
On display in the Asian Centers' Lounge, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge from February 14 - March 29, 2019. 
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and the Harvard University Asia Center. 
Read more about IAAS student Josh Freeman exhibits translations of Uyghur poems 

Co-Sponsored Talk: 
"The historical geographic background of the Silk Road"
Prof. Ge Jianxiong, Institute of Historical Geography, Fudan University

November 21, 2016   5-6 pm, Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall 110  
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies 

Film screening: 
"The Eagle Huntress" by Otto Bell  
Film screening co-sponsored by the Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Lecture Series and the Harvard Art Museums 
March 23, 2017   6:00 pm, Harvard Art Museums, 0505 - Menschel Hall 

Film screening:  "The Land of Many Palaces"  
Film screening followed by discussion with directors Adam Smith and Song Ting. 
Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Lecture Series co-sponsored with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies 
January 30, 2015   7:30pm 
CGIS Belfer Case Study Room (S020), South Building 1730 Cambridge Street 

Talk: "From Muslim Historiography to National History: Early Uyghur Historiography in Kazakhstan" 
Dr. Ablet Kamalov, Turan University, Almaty, Kazakhstan 
March 26, 2013,  4-5pm  CGIS Knafel North Building, Room K262, 1737 Cambridge Street 
Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Lecture Series event co-sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, the Harvard University Asia Center, and the Davis Center for Eurasian and Russian Studies