Rate My Professor Timothy Thurston

Timothy Thurston is an Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds, affiliated with the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures. He earned his PhD in Chinese Studies from The Ohio State University in 2015, with a dissertation entitled 'Laughter on the Grassland: A Diachronic Study of Amdo Tibetan Comedy and the Public Intellectual in Western China.' His academic career at Leeds includes serving as Lecturer in Chinese Studies from 2017 to 2021 before his promotion to Associate Professor. Thurston is also a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, a prestigious award recognizing his innovative research.

Thurston's research specializes in language ideologies, folklore, oral traditions, and intangible cultural heritage in Northwest China, with a focus on Amdo Tibetan expressive cultures, including comedy, satire, and the Gesar epic. As Principal Investigator, he leads the Tibetan Sustainable Heritage Initiative (TaSHI), a four-year UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship-funded project that collaborates with Tibetan communities to document and sustain endangered cultural practices using digital technologies, aiming to model sustainable futures for global heritage efforts. He previously directed 'Laughter from the Grassland: Humour and Comedy in Amdo Tibet' (2013-2021), exploring Tibetan satire's role in modernity. Other projects include 'Heritage with and without the State,' examining the Gesar epic ecosystem. His scholarship illuminates Tibetan engagements with state heritage regimes and linguistic modernity. Key publications encompass 'The Tibetan Gesar Epic Beyond its Bards: An Ecosystem of Genres on the Roof of the World' (Journal of American Folklore, 2019), 'The Purist Campaign as Metadiscursive Regime in China’s Tibet' (Inner Asia, 2018), 'On Artistic and Cultural Generations in Northeastern Tibet' (Asian Ethnicity, 2018), 'A Careful Village: Comedy and Linguistic Modernity in China’s Tibet, ca. 1996' (Journal of Asian Studies, 2018), 'Language Ideologies as Metadiscursive Regime in China’s Tibet' (Inner Asia, 2018), and 'An Introduction to Tibetan Sa bstod Speeches in Amdo' (Asian Ethnology, 2012). Thurston is authoring 'Satirical Tibet: Media, Voice, and Ideology in a Modernizing Amdo.' His contributions extend to public lectures and editorial roles in folklore studies.