Huatse Gyal

Dr. Huatse Gyal is an Assistant Professor of anthropology at Rice University. He is also a writer and filmmaker. His research explores the interdependent relationships between land, language, and community, focusing on state environmentalism and climate change, as well as an interdisciplinary approach to Indigenous environmental and political movements in a global context. His publication include several peer-reviewed academic papers in Critical Asian Studies and Ateliers d'anthropologie, a co-edited volume in Nomadic Peoples on mass relocation of Tibetan nomads, co-edited volume on the politics of translation and translation theories in the larger context of Tibetan Studies (2024), as well as a number of widely-read online academic essays both in English and his mother-tongue Tibetan. He is currently working on a book project, entitled, “Restoring Indigenous Relations of Land: Rangeland Fencing, Resettlement, and the Resilience of Tibetan Pastoralists. As a visual anthropologist, Dr. Gyal also works with a network of Indigenous community artists, writers, filmmakers, and environmentalists in eastern Tibet, whose work strives to construct alternative narratives of Tibetan pastoralists’ relationality with their ancestral land through documentary films, paintings, children's books, and community-led land-restoration projects. In 2023, he released his first feature-length documentary film titled "Khata: Poison or Purity?" This film was screened at a dozen academic institutions and film festivals on Turtle Island (North America).