PERSONAL SUMMARY
As a PhD scholar and graduate instructor of record in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), also specializing in feminist studies, I have over 12 years of leadership experience in public advocacy and intersectional social justice issues. I am committed to blending my scholarship, pedagogy, and praxis to effect social change.
Work history
Communications Chair & Board of Directors, Association for Anthropology of Consciousness, American Anthropological Association
May 2021 – present
- Strategize and executive external communication including social media communication for programs and publication undertaking of Association for Anthropology of Consciousness.
- Advise the work of an interdisciplinary association of anthropologists, psychologists, mythologists, archaeologists, sociologists, and like minded scholar-practitioners united by a common interest in the study of consciousness from an anthropological perspective.
Content co-developer, Environment Section, & Project leader, The New Tibet Museum, Central Tibetan Administration
October 2017 – May 2021
- Lead and develop content and design creation for the Environment Section at the New Tibet Museum, that foregrounds the environmental significance of the Tibetan plateau also known as the Earth’s Third Pole, Roof of the World, Asia’s Water Tower and Rain Maker.
- Led and supervised the creation of the New Tibet Museum, a history museum and a center for research, learning, engagement, and development, on Tibet and the Tibetan people.
Secretary, Department of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration
June 2016 – January 2019
- Headed the information and broadcast wing of the Tibetan government in exile. Responsibilities included managing the Tibet Museum, Tibet TV, Tri-lingual news sites (Tibet.net/ Bod.Asia/Xizang.ziye), Social Media desk, Translation and Publication, Narthang Printing Press, Project Desk and Human Rights Advocacy campaign.
Advisory Committee Member, Women’s Empowerment Desk, Central Tibetan Administration
January 2017 – December 2018
- Responsibilities included advising the WED that aims to ensure gender perspectives are incorporated in the design, implementation and monitoring of all of CTA’s program activities. Took active role in hosting the convening of the ‘First Tibetan Women’s Empowerment Conference’ by the Central Tibetan Administration.
Co-Chair, International Tibet Network
November 2012 – September 2016
- Advised the Executive committee of the Network, Chaired meetings of the steering committee of the Network representing a global coalition of over 120 Tibet-related non-governmental organisations.
General Secretary, Tibetan Chinese PEN Association
April 2014 – May 2016
- Organized conferences and managed grants for TCPA, a worldwide non-profit, non-political and non-governmental association made up of Tibetan and Chinese writers, editors, researchers, publishers and journalists who have interest in the preservation and promotion of the Tibetan literature.
Elected Representative of Tibetan Parliament in Exile
May 2011 -May 2016
- Won two consecutive elections held in exile India. Hold the record for highest number of votes ever received for a parliamentary candidate.
Research and Media Executive, Tibetan Women’s Association
September 2005 – September 2006, and February 2008- April 2012
- Responsibilities included leading a team of researchers to produce the most authoritative reports and multimedia production on the status of Tibetan women in Tibet such as Tears of Silence: A Report on China’s Birth Control Policy in Tibet, Breaking the Shackles: 50 Years of Tibetan Women’s Struggle, A Sequence of Tortures: A Diary of Interrogations, and The Status of Tibetan Women in Tibet. Managed media, public relations, and projects for the largest and only women’s non-governmental organization in Tibetan history.
ADVOCACY HISTORY
- Climate justice
Chaired Tibet Third Pole climate advocacy campaigns led by the International Tibet Network, 2012 – 2016
Part of the Tibet Third Pole (T3P) delegation, first Tibet advocacy group to participate in the United National Conference on Climate Change (COP-15), Copenhagen, December 2009 -January 2010
- Gender and women’s issues
Speaker and Moderator, Preparing for Change: The Need for Discernment, Women and Global Change, August 2022
Speaker, Theorizing a Female Dalai Lama: An Intersectional Tool for Feminisms, Center for Women’s Studies, Cotton University, Guwahati, June 2022.
Speaker, Power of the Feminine: Facing Shadow, Evoking Light, Webinar, Human Foundation, Egypt, October 2021
Moderator, Living from the Heart , Panel Discussion, Women’s Economic Forum, Caribbean, August 2021
Speaker, Public interaction with Taiwanese Member of Parliament Yu Mei-nu on “Is Gender an Issue?-Tibetan and Taiwanese Female Politicians Talk about Their Bitter-Sweet Experience,” Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan, November 2017
Organized and led the first Legal Empowerment of Tibetan Women in Exile, Tibetan Women’s Association, Dharamsala, India, August 2014
Speaker, Gender and Its Understanding in the Tibetan Community, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, India, June 2014
Speaker, Women’s Rights, Human Dignity and Equality, United Nations Watch, Geneva, February 2014
Tabled the first ‘Private Member’s Resolution on Protecting Tibetan Women’s Sexual and Legal Rights’ in the Tibetan Parliament, Dharamsala, September 2011
Organized and led a series of Advanced Tibetan Women’s Leadership Training, Tibetan Women’s Association, Dharamsala, June 2010 – November 2011
Speaker, 1st International Congress on Women’s Health and Unsafe Abortion (ICWHUA) , Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Bangkok, January 2010
Organized and led a series of Women’s Empowerment Programs, Tibetan Women’s Association India, September 2005 – August 2017
Organized and led a series of Tibetan Nuns’ Leadership Programs, Tibetan Women’ Association, India, June 2009 – April 2012
- Human rights
Lead trainer, Digital Media Advocacy at the first ‘International Rohingya Youth Conference,’ British Rohingya of United Kingdom (BROUK), London, December 2019
Organized and hosted the first ‘Geneva Forum for Human Rights,’ Central Tibetan Administration, Geneva, November 2018
Moderator, Promises Unfulfilled: Human Rights in China-the case of Tibet and Xinjiang, UN Human Rights Side Event, Society for Threatened People, Geneva, November 2018
Speaker, Human Rights in China-Seeking Solutions, UN Human Rights Side Event, Society for Threatened People, Geneva, September 2018
Speaker, Tibet- a burning desire for freedom, Fritt Ort Foundation, Oslo, Norway, December 2013
Speaker, Press Conference to condemn China’s current propaganda drive and crackdown in Tibet. Also recognized as World’s First Ever Google+ Hangout Global Live Press Conference, June 2011
- Intersectional Social justice
Speaker, Non-violent resistance in Tibet, Tibet Initiative Deutschland, Darmstadt, Germany, September 2018
Speaker, ‘International seminar on Minority and indigenous peoples’ rights,’ KIOS, the Finnish NGO foundation for human rights, Helsinki, Finland, November 2011
- Political advocacy
Moderator/speaker, Expert panel: Crafting Legitimacy in Exile: The Case of Tibetan Democracy, International Tibet Network, November 2022
Guest lecturer, Valuing Democracy: The Case of Tibetan Democracy in Exile, Department of Government – Democracy and Governance, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., November 2022
Speaker, Leading freedom in exile, TEDx Dharamsala, India, November 2017
Speaker, ‘Taiwan International Conference on Tibet,’ Taipei, Taiwan, November 2017
Organized and hosted the first ‘Five-fifty conference: Shaping Tibet’s political future,’ Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala, India, October 2017
Speaker, ‘9th Inter-ethnic Leadership Conference,’ Citizen Power of China, Taipei, Taiwan, April 2014
Speaker, Making Democracy Real, Initiatives of Change, Asia Plateau, Panchgani, India, February 2014
Representative, Tibetan Parliamentary delegation, All-India Lobby Campaign, January – May 2013
Media Relations Committee, Tibetan People’s Solidarity Campaign. Delhi, India, February 2013
Tibetan Parliamentary Representative at the 6th World Parliamentarian Convention on Tibet, Canadian Parliament, Ottawa, Canada, April 2012
- Diplomacy
Organizing committee member and moderator, Virtual celebration of Tibetan Policy and Support Act 2020, Regional Tibetan Association of Western Massachusetts, Amherst, February 2021
Vice Chair, Organizing Committee, Thank You India-2018, Central Tibetan Administration, March-April 2018
Vice Chair, Organizing Committee, Cultural Festival of Tibet, Central Tibetan Administration, April 2018
Core member, Organizing Committee, High Level bipartisan U.S. Congressional Delegation’s visit to Dharamsala led by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Central Tibetan Administration, May 2017
- Youth leadership
Organized and hosted the first ‘Five-fifty youth conference: Shaping Tibet’s future,’ Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala, India, August 2018
Speaker, Advocacy in the age of social media, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, India, August 2017
Speaker, Youth Empowerment, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, India, June 2016
Moderator, Beijing plus 20: Women’s Leadership Status in Asia, A Panel Discussion, Tibetan Women’s Association. Delhi, December 2015
Moderator, Role of Women in Peace-building, Reconciliation and ensuring Accountability, A Panel Discussion, Tibetan Women’s Association. Delhi, December 2013
Interviews
Featured in Sharing Things podcast of University of Edinburgh in October 2022
Tibet will set the litmus test for China’s rise. Published in Deutsche Welle (DW), March 30, 2018
Dhardon Sharling mirroring struggle of Tibet sans China’s narrative. Published in The Tibet Post, June 24, 2017
I faced a storm, I surfed it through: Dhardon Sharling. Published in Tibet Sun, October 6, 2016
I truly believe that no one is above the law: Sharling Dhardon. Published in The Tibet Post, June, 2016
India’s Tibetan women assuming bigger roles. Published in Deutsche Welle (DW), January 1, 2014
The Stream — Tibet: Striving beyond the Middle Way?. Broadcast on Aljazeera Stream, August 18, 2011
Gender roles of Tibetan society challenged on a daily basis. Published in The Tibet Post, July 20, 2011
Digital storytelling
Produced and directed a music video Dromo Rinchen Gangala, March, 2021
Creative advisor, A Place in the Sun: Stories from Tibet in Exile, a Tibet TV production premiered at the 15th New Asia Cinema, Umass. Also coordinated its world premiere. October, 2019
Creative advisor, India’s Roadbuilders, a Tibet TV production. October, 2019
Creative advisor, Connecting Faith through Technology, a Tibet TV production. January, 2017
Created a short documentary Are We Ready-2011, January 2010
Acted in a short Tibetan film Chocho, April 2004
Academic conference presentations
Sharling, T. D., (2021 March). Buddhist and Feminist Approaches to Climate and Ecology, Sea Change: Lifeworlds & Ecological Upheaval, Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, American Anthropological Association
Sharling, T. D., (2021 March). International Women’s Day: Women Creating Change, Centre for Lifelong Learning, California Institute for Human Science
Sharling, T. D., (2020 October). Evoking the Power of the Feminine, Centre for Lifelong Learning, California Institute for Human Science
Sharling, T. D., (2020 November). The Anthropologist as Other: Praxis, Identity & the Future of Modern Anthropology, Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, American Anthropological Association
Sharling, T. D., (2017 February). Resolving the Tibet question: the strategic relevance and importance of the Middle-Way approach, University of Westminster, London
Sharling, T. D., (2017 February). Borderlines Conference 2017: Religion, Nationalism, and Identity, Cambridge University, United Kingdom
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Dec 2022/May 2023 University of Massachusetts, Amherst Dissertation title: “Caring for human, climate, and planetary well-being: The Dalai Lama’s rhetoric of human values and environmental ethics” Advisor: Professor Anne Ciecko
Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies May 2022 University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Master of Science in Counselling Studies November 2007 University of Edinburgh
Postgraduate Certificate in Counselling Studies November 2007 University of Edinburgh
Master of Arts in Communication May 2005 Madras Christian College, Madras University, Chennai, India
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature May 2003 Ethiraj College for Women, Madras University, Chennai, India
Teaching experience
at the Department of Communication, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Instructor, Comm 375 Writing as Communication Fall 2021-present
Instructor, Comm 260 Public Speaking Spring 2019- Spring 2021
Teaching Assistant, Comm 339 Media and Public Policy Fall 2019
Teaching Assistant, Comm 397 SE Social Media in Everyday Life Fall 2019
Teaching assistant, Comm 310 Social Influence and Persuasion Spring 2015
Teaching Assistant, Comm 212 Cultural Codes in Communication (Led weekly section class) Fall 2014/ Spring 2016/Spring 2019
Honors
Distinguished Teaching Award Nominee, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2022-23
Featured as a Umass expert on “Building healthy relationships post Covid.” Umass Magazine. Fall 2021.
Department of Communication nominee for Boscov Fellowship, Umass Amherst, 2021-2022.
Featured as Umass Amherst Campus Celebrity. Her Campus. 2015
Sir Tom Farmer scholarship to pursue graduate studies at University of Edinburgh, 2006-2007
Educator, Environmental Humanist, Digital Feminist, Changemaker 