Program Advisors
Vikas Bali
Program Advisor
Dr. Ruth Gamble
Program Advisor
Dr. Roger Jackson
Program Advisor
Geshe Thupten Tendhar
Program Advisor
Dolkun Isa
Program Advisor
Dolkun is a former student-leader of the pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University in 1988. He received a Master’s degree in Politics and Sociology from Gazi University in Turkey and a degree in Computer Science in Munich, Germany. After enduring persecution from the Chinese government, Isa fled China in 1994 and sought asylum in Europe, and became a citizen of Germany in 2006. In April 2004, he also played an important role in the establishment of the World Uyghur Congress and was elected General Secretary. He has since been presenting Uyghur human rights issues to the UN Human Rights Council, European Parliament, European governments and international human rights organizations. Dolkun Isa is the current President of the World Uyghur Congress.
Dr. Siddiq Wahid
Program Advisor
Dr. Siddiq Wahid is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in New Delhi and Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) in Delhi. He has been Director, UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute of Kashmir Studies at the University of Kashmir. Previous to that he was the Founding Vice Chancellor of Islamic University of Science & Technology, Kashmir and Maharaja Gulab Singh Chair Professor of Modern History at the University of Jammu. He has taught in the United States and India, and has lectured widely in South Asia, Europe and the United States in his field of study. He received his PhD in the field of Inner Asian and Altaic Studies at Harvard University where he specialized in Tibetan and Central Asian political History. He has published widely in his fields of interest in India and the United States.
Geshe Beri Jigme Wangyal
Program Advisor
Geshe Beri Jigme Wangyal is a professor of literature and author of several books on various subjects ranging from poetry to biography and history. He was born in Tibet and arrived in India in 1989. In 2003 he was invited as a visiting scholar to Indiana University, United States, where he taught a course in the history department. He received his Geshe degree in Buddhist Philosophy in 2004 from the Drepung Monastery in Southern India. He served as a member of the Tibetan Parliament in exile in 2001. He has participated in various international conferences and has taught students from many countries around the world. He is the author of 21 books. Currently he serves as a teacher and chair of the literature department at Central University for Tibetan Studies in Varanasi, India.