Trade Practices as Social Ties Between Muslims and Tibetans in Amdo

Full Talk Title: Trade Practices as Social Ties Between Muslims and Tibetans in Amdo, Past and Present

For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a valid government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00pm on Oct. 23 for campus access.

Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event. NOTE: You cannot access campus using the QR code from Eventbrite.

Speaker:

Marie-Paule Hille, Associate Professor, L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris

Moderator:

Cameron Foltz, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute

Drawing on findings from historical and anthropological research, this talk examines social interactions between Muslims and Tibetans in Amdo during the first half of the twentieth century and from the 1980s to the mid-2010s. These social interactions will be studied through the lens of trade practices. Taking the singular case of a Muslim community as its starting point, the talk seeks to understand the religious, political and moral stakes of these forms of economic life.

Speakers' Bios:

Marie-Paule Hille is Associate Professor at EHESS (Paris). Combining anthropological and historical methods, she has conducted extensive fieldwork on Muslims in Amdo. She has developed a major line of research on the shaping of Muslim trade networks, past and present, and the relationships between Muslim traders and Tibetan society. On this topic, she co-edited the volume Muslims in Amdo Tibetan Society (2015, Lexington Books) and authored a paper for IJAS (2026).

Cameron Foltz is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, where he teaches courses on the history of modern China. He is recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award and has also been awarded support from the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica, the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia, and the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund. His book project engages the Tibetan pastoralists in Qinghai Province, the rise of the Ma Family, and the sale of locally produced sheep's wool during an international wool boom (c. 1880–1929) fueled by US carpet production.

This event is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the Modern Tibet Studies Program.