Biography
Dr Gillian G Tan’s research combines long-term ethnographic fieldwork among nomads of eastern Tibet with theoretical developments in phenomenology and the anthropology of nature. Her work elucidates the multiple ways in which people understand, and live in, their worlds. Her doctoral research explored different perceptions and articulations of change in a Tibetan community among various actors: nomads, the international development industry, the Chinese government and an incarnate lama. Her current research, An Ecology of Religion: re-examining relationships among people, environment and religiosity on the Tibetan plateau, suggests an alternative understanding to human-nonhuman-environment relations and proposes that these interactions adapt to changes based on a system of logic influenced by religious beliefs.
Gillian completed her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Melbourne. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from St John’s College, Santa Fe and the University of Chicago. She has been a Fondation Fyssen postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale, Collège de France, where she worked under the direction of Philippe Descola. Gillian has received various Australian and international awards and scholarships, presented at national and international conferences, and published articles and book chapters. Her monograph will soon be published with the University of Washington Press. She is also an international director for a Tibetan non-governmental organization that trains young Tibetans in filmmaking and produces documentaries of contemporary Tibetan life.
Read more on Gillian's profileResearch interests
Anthropology of Nature
Interface between religion and ecology
Nomadic pastoralism and relationship with the state
Tibet-China
Ethnography
Affiliations
Member of the Australian Anthropology Society
Member of the American Anthropological Association
Teaching interests
Anthropology of Nature
Interface between religion and ecology
Nomadic pastoralism and relationship with the state
Tibet-China
Ethnography
Units taught
ASS203 Being Human (with the Nonhuman)
ASS329 Crime and Violence
ASS102 Culture and Communication
ASS233 Myth and Ritual
ASS330 Cyborg Anthropology
Knowledge areas
Human-environment relations
Tibet - China
Nomadic Pastoralists
Religion and Ecology
Ethnographic Field Methods
Media appearances
https://www.accaonline.org.au/acca-summer-listening-biography-things-dr-gillian-tan
Research groups
Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization
Member, Diversity and Identity research stream
Member, Culture and Heritage research stream
Awards
2012-2014 Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
2010 Fondation Fyssen Postdoctoral Fellowship
2005-2008 Australian Postgraduate Award (APA)
2007 Australian Federation of University Women (AFUW) Daphne Elliott Bursary
2006 Australian Government Endeavour Cheung Kong Award
Publications
The Postcolonial Sacred in the Fiction and Memoirs of Tim Winton
Gillian Tan, Lyn Mc Credden
(2022), pp. 43-55, Ecosustainable Narratives and Partnership Relationships in World Literatures in English, Newcastle upon Tyne, Eng., B1
HUMAN-NONHUMAN RELATIONS IN THE MAKING OF PLACE IN KHAM
G Tan
(2022), pp. 56-66, Routledge Handbook of Highland Asia, London, Eng., B1
Smoky Relations: Beyond Dichotomies of Substance on the Tibetan Plateau
Gillian Tan
(2020), pp. 145-163, Exploring Materiality and Connectivity in Anthropology and Beyond, London, Eng., B1
Entre « silence » et expression
Gillian Tan, Anne-Hélène Kerbiriou
(2020), Vol. 44, pp. 67-89, Anthropologie et Sociétés, Ste-Foy, Canada, C1
Pastoralists by choice: adaptations in contemporary pastoralism in Eastern Kham
Gillian Tan
(2019), pp. 281-306, Frontier Tibet patterns of change in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, B1
G Tan
(2018), Berlin, Germany, A1
Differentiating Smoke: Smoke as duwa and Smoke from bsang on the Tibetan Plateau
G Tan
(2018), Vol. 28, pp. 126-136, Anthropological Forum, C1
Society against the state as society against surplus
G Tan
(2018), Vol. 51/52, pp. 177-185, Arena journal, Fitzroy, Vic., C1
In the circle of white stones: moving through seasons with nomads of Eastern Tibet
G Tan
(2017), Seattle, Wash., A1
G Tan
(2016), Vol. 47, pp. 1-15, Etudes mongoles et siberiennes, centrasiatiques et tibetaines, Paris, France, C1
Introduction: everyday religion among pastoralists of high and inner Asia
G Tan, N Schneider
(2016), Vol. 47, pp. 1-4, Etudes mongoles et siberiennes, centrasiatiques et tibetaines, Paris, France, C1
An ecology of religiosity: re-emphasizing relationships between humans and nonhumans
G Tan
(2014), Vol. 8, pp. 307-328, Journal for the study of religion, nature and culture, Sheffield, England, C1
G Tan
(2013), Vol. 43-44, pp. 1-18, Etudes Mongoles et Siberiennes, Centrasiatiques et Tibetaines, Paris, France, C1
Transforming history and myth: on the mutuality and separation of shared narratives in Eastern Tibet
G Tan
(2013), Vol. 24, pp. 193-212, Australian journal of anthropology, Chichester, England, C1
History's motion : on absolute time and space in Tibet
G Tan
(2011), pp. 163-175, Force, movement, intensity : the Newtonian imagination in the humanities and social sciences, Melbourne, Vic, B1-1
A modern portrait of a Tibetan incarnate lama
G Tan
(2010), pp. 123-135, New views of Tibetan culture, Melbourne, Vic., B1-1
G Tan
(2010), pp. 92-94, The Malaysian way of life : perspectives of a nation's culture and politics, Kuala Lumper, Malaysia, B1-1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Troubled Waters: Tibet's Rivers and Their Connection to Climate Change
Prof John Powers, Dr Gillian Tan, Asst/Prof James Pittock, Prof Petra Maurer, Dr Sara Beavis, Dr Ruth Gamble, A/Prof Per Sorensen, Dr Yangmotso Yangmotso, Prof John Powers
ARC - Discovery Projects
- 2023: $4,782
- 2021: $140,240
- 2020: $108,569
- 2019: $161,191
Supervisions
Samson Keam
Thesis entitled: Revitalising Hydraulic Civilisation: Crisis and state power in post-conflict Sri Lanka
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Sara Cheikh Husain
Thesis entitled: Muslim Community Organisations' Understanding of and Responses to Islamophobia
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences