Scarlett Jiali He

Field: Modern History of Tibet
Advisors: Gray Tuttle
Email: jh4729@columbia.edu

Scarlett He is a PhD student in the EALAC-History program. Her research interest is the modern history in Tibet, the decolonization of artworks, and the critical approach to disclose and decentralize the socio-political bias on non-indigenous art objects exposed in foreign contexts. She gained an MA in East Asian Art History and European Art History at Heidelberg University. Her thesis studies the Ming-commissioned Tibetan Buddhist art in Amdo and discusses the roles of Tibetan monks in the Ming court. Before coming to New York, Scarlett lived in Europe and worked as an independent researcher in German and French museums, conducting provenance research on Tibetan objects. Her current research is on the history of art collecting undertaken by European and American expeditors in 20th-century Tibet and the later trace of the objects in Western Europe and the US.