Turkic and Central Eurasian Studies Seminar: Language Oppression in Tibet

Professor Gerald Roche, La Trobe University Australia

Thousands of language communities around the world today face an uncertain future, with estimates suggesting that half the world’s languages will no longer be used by the end of the century. This talk will examine the broad global issue through a localized case study, the Manegacha speakers of the northeast Tibetan Plateau, in what is today the People’s Republic of China.

Currently, the Manegacha language is in the process of being replaced by Tibetan, which is itself a minoritized language within China under threat from the national language, Mandarin.
Drawing on extensive research in Tibet stretching back nearly two decades, this talk will discuss the complex political dynamics driving this situation in relation to state-building, nationalism, global civil society, and everyday violence. It will challenge conventional wisdom about Sino-Tibetan relations, and offer new insights into the forces driving the global crisis in linguistic diversity.

Gerald Roche is Associate Professor of Politics at La Trobe University in Australia. A political anthropologist, Roche’s publications have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals. He has also written for The Nation, Jacobin, and other venues, and was co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization.