Tsering Samdrup was born and grew up in a pastoral Tibetan community in Amdo. He received his PhD in China and Inner Asian Language Research from the SOAS, University of London. He teaches courses in Tibetan language, culture, and literature. His research interests span textual, folkloristic, and sociolinguistic aspects of Tibet and the Himalayan regions.

Prior to joining Northwestern, he taught courses on Tibetan language and culture at SOAS, University of London (UK), and the University of Bonn (Germany). He also held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Leeds (UK), where he focused on the sustainability of Tibetan expressive culture.

His most recent publication is a co-translation (with Timothy Thurston) of Careful Village and Other Khashag from Tibet, a collection of Tibetan spoken comic dialogues by Manla Jyab, a renowned Tibetan artist. 

His other academic publications include “‘Blazing Light’: On the Original Tibetan Name for wamo 嗢末,” in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae and “Humilifics in Mabzhi pastoralist speech of Amdo Tibetan,” in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, and “The Nine-Fold Magical Cord Cycle: Investigating ’Phrul gyi the gu brgu skor, a Wartime Medical Manual,” in William McGrath (ed.), Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine and others.

His current research explores Tibetan proverbs through textual, pragmatic, and folkloric approaches to examine how their performance functions and endures within Tibetan culture, particularly in the context of the digital era.