I am a historian of empire and colonialism in Asia, teaching in the  Literature Humanities program at Columbia University. Most broadly, my work centers on the connected histories of China, Tibet, Inner Asia and the Himalayan world and traces the confluences, divergences and entanglements between pre-colonial knowledge systems and colonial modernity.

I received my Ph.D in Tibetan and late imperial Chinese history at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. Currently, I am working on my first book based on my dissertation. Drawing on multilingual archival and literary sources, Mirrors of History: The Poetics of Tibetan Kingship in the Time of Empire, examines the convergence of multi-ethnic imperial rule, elite literary and historiographical culture, and Buddhist political theory through a study of the 18th century encounter between the Central Tibet and the Qing empire and its legacy through to the modern day.

Outside the university, I am an experienced literary translator (from Tibetan and Chinese) and film producer. My film projects have screened and won awards at festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival, South by Southwest (SXSW), and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.