Tibet beyond Black and White: Racial Formations and Transnational Collusions

Abstract

This doctoral project utilizes tools shaped by feminist theorists, critical race theorists, and anthropologists to trace the transnational circuits of power and privilege at work in relationships that form in and around Tibet. With a key focus on race and whiteness, this project investigates the history and current manifestations of white racial formations as they relate to Tibet from three interconnected ideological contexts: the United States, The People's Republic of China, and Tibet in exile. In exploring the issue of whiteness in Tibet, I endeavor to expand conversations about Tibet beyond the figurative "black and white" framework of Tibetan versus Han Chinese. I also hope to complicate the issue of whiteness beyond the "Black and White" binary that often constricts discussions of race. This dissertation is formed around a simple argument: that whiteness matters in Tibet, and that to understand how it matters, we must pay careful attention to sociohistorical racial projects from a variety of diverse contexts.