International Seminar of Young Tibetologists (ISYT) was founded to create a venue for collaboration and exchange for postgraduate students and early career researchers who study all aspects of focusing on Tibetan studies including; culture, history, linguistics, region, and religion. This was achieved through convening the first ISYT conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in August 2007, and by founding the ISYT as a sustainable research association that convenes conferences every two to three years.
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History
In 1977, Martin Brauen and Per Kvaerne convened the Seminar of Young Tibetologists in Zürich. They invited sixty scholars, thirty of whom attended the five-day conference. Based on their success, another conference was planned, to take place in Oxford.
That conference, convened by Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, marked the formal beginning of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS). Later, the Seminar of Young Tibetologists was retroactively awarded the status of being the first IATS seminar. The IATS seminars doubled at nearly every meeting, and, alongside the Sándor Kőrösi Csoma Symposium, became the premier conference in the field of Tibetan studies. With success came exponential growth, and by the time of the fourth seminar in Narita, it was impractical for participants to attend every paper. At the 11th meeting of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) in Germany in 2006, the idea was mooted of a separate, but related organisation with a specific focus on Tibetologists in the early stages of their careers.
Seminars
The first International Seminar of Young Tibetologists was convened in London at the School of Oriental and African Studies, in August 2007 by Tim Myatt and Brandon Dotson. Statues were accepted, and a governing board elected to office. The papers presented at this London conference were published in a peer-reviewed academic journal by Serindia, entitled "Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies."
The second International Seminar of Young Tibetologists was convened in Paris in September 2009, by Elijah Ary, Marc-Henri Deroche, Alice Travers and Nicolas Schneider and saw the participation of approximately 50 participants from 15 different countries. The proceedings of this conference have been published by Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines.
The third International Seminar of Young Tibetologists was convened in the Kobe City University of Foreign Studies in Kobe, Japan from 3 to 7 September 2012 by Kazushi Iwao, Seiji Kumagai, Ai Nishida and Meishi Yamamoto. There were 60 papers presented in twenty-two panel sessions and 13 poster presentations. The proceedings of the conference have been published as the volume 51 of the Journal of Research Institute (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies).
The fourth International Seminar of Young Tibetologists will be held from September 7 to 12, 2015 at the University of Leipzig, Germany.
Governance
The governing board of the ISYT is constituted by the President, Secretary General and Advisors. Brandon Dotson has served as the president and Tim Myatt as the Secretary General of ISYT from 2007-2012. Brandon Dotson is Visiting Researcher and Research Group Leader, "Kingship and Religion in Tibet," at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany and Tim Myatt has completed his doctorate in Anglo-Tibetan relations at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University, England.
The current President of ISYT is Kalsang Norbu Gurung. He is currently working on a project, "Social History of Tibetan Societies" at the Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies in Bonn University in Bonn, Germany.
The current Secretary General of ISYT is Seiji Kumagai. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Bhutanese Studies in Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan.