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