Rate My Professor Yosay Wangdi

Yosay Wangdi is a Professor of History at Grand Valley State University. Of Tibetan heritage and born in India as the second generation outside Tibet, she specializes in the history, culture, and religion of Tibet, South Asia, and the Himalayas, along with environmental history. She earned her B.A. in History Honors from Loreto College, Darjeeling, India, M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in History from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India, in 1992, an M.S. in Economics in 1999, and a Ph.D. in History in 2003 from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her doctoral dissertation, “Echoes of an Agonized Nation: Transformations in Tibetan Identity in Diaspora,” explores evolving Tibetan identities among diaspora communities. Her M.S. thesis addressed “Deforestation in the Himalayan Region: An Institutional Approach.” From 1996 to 2002, she worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Departments of History and Western Traditions at the University of Nevada, Reno, instructing courses on East Asian history, history of science, and civilizations of America, Europe, and Latin America.

Wangdi joined Grand Valley State University as Assistant Professor of History in August 2003, advancing to Associate Professor and then full Professor. She teaches World History, History of India, Buddhism in East Asian Religions, and Tibet and the Himalayan World. Her research interests include South Asia, Tibet, history of India, religion, environmental history, China, and Buddhism. Key publications feature her translation of Dhondup Gyal’s “Waterfall of Youth” in Studies on Asia, Vol. 3, Issue 2 (2005); a review of Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal (2006); the chapter “ ‘Displaced People’ Adjusting to New Cultural Vocabulary: Tibetan Immigrants in North America” in Emerging Voices: Experiences of Underrepresented Asian Americans, edited by Huping Ling (2008); and co-editing The Role of Agency and Memory in Historical Understanding with Gordon Andrews (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). In summer 2004, she received research grants from GVSU’s Department of Research and Development and International Office. She serves on the Faculty Advisory Board of the Grand Valley Journal of History and was co-chair of the Asian Faculty and Staff Association.