On February 26, 2010, nine Tibetan Studies scholars from across North America gathered for a one-day conference titled, Research on Contemporary Tibet: New Challenges, New Methods. The conference was hosted by three CU faculty in Tibetan Studies, Emily Yeh (Geography), Holly Gayley (Religious Studies), and Carole McGranahan (Anthropology), and sponsored by the Center for Asian Studies and the Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
Held in the Dennis Small Cultural Center, the schedule combined private sessions to discuss each participating scholar's research-in-progress and two public panels: a roundtable on current research challenges—open to faulty and graduate students in Asian Studies—and a panel on "What's Happened in Tibet since the 2008 Protests?" open to the general public. Private sessions covered the following topics:
- Reading the Study of Tibet, paper by Robbie Barnett
- The Politics of Divination, papers by Charlene Makley and Antonio Terrone
- Development in the Socialist Countryside, papers by Emily Yeh and Geoff Childs
- Mass Media and Archives on Tibet, papers by Carole McGranahan and Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy
- Buddhism In and Out of Exile, papers by Holly Gayley and Abe Zablocki
The public panel offered an illuminating discussion of the events surrounding the dramatic protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau in March 2008. Panelists Robbie Barnett, Charlene Makley, Geoff Childs, and Emily Yeh shared their compelling first-hand experiences in the field that year. Unfortunately, Tashi Rabgey, who also planned to be on the public panel, was unable to make the conference due to a snow storm on the east coast.
At any given time, the conference had fifteen to thirty people in attendance. For each of the private sessions, there were five to six observers, who were specially invited and contributed comments and questions. Invited observers included Tibetan Studies graduate students at CU and Tibetan Studies faculty at nearby institutions, Naropa University and University of Denver. The roundtable had approximately twenty participants and the public panel over thirty.