Current Position
Postdoctoral Research Associate at Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Biography
Tawni Tidwell is a Tibetan medical doctor (first at Men-Tsee-Khang India, then Sorig Loling Tibetan Medical College of Qinghai University in Xining, China, graduated 2015) and biocultural anthropologist (PhD 2017 Emory University). Her research focuses on cancer, metabolic, and neurologic disorders as well as the pharmacologic innovations in Tibetan medicine to treat such disorders. As such, she collaborates with researchers at Emory University on a compositional chemistry and toxicology analysis of tsotel, one of the most important medicinal compounds in Tibetan medicine, and tracks proper compounding and training in the Tibetan medical field. Tawni is dedicated to facilitating dialogue and collaboration between the Tibetan and Western intellectual traditions of medicine, science and contemplative inquiry. Additionally, she is particularly interested in the learning processes in memory, embodiment, and sensory entrainment for deployment in diagnostic skills, which Tibetan doctors develop throughout their education and lifetime. She also serves as an advisor and assistant translator for the Tibetan Community Health Network, an online health science information resource in Tibetan language for Tibetan communities founded by former Emory-Tibet Science Initiative translator Sangey Tashi.
Research Interests
Tawni is interested in investigating the mind-body relationship foundational to facilitating healthy minds and bodies through biocultural and Tibetan medical paradigms for well-being, particularly in work that contributes the cultural, social and environmental contexts that support practices and qualities of mind that lead to experiences of well-being across the life course, as well as aspects of its diversity among populations and their sociocultural contexts.
Education
PhD, Biocultural Anthropology, Emory University (2017)
TMD (Tibetan Medical Doctor, Kachupa-equivalent Degree) (2015)
Sorig Loling Tibetan Medical College of Qinghai University (2013-2015), eastern Tibet (Xining, China), graduated 2015; Men-Tsee-Khang India (2010-2013)
MA, Anthropology, Emory University (2012)
BS, Earth Systems, Minor in Physics, Stanford University (2004)
Select Publications
Jingnan, L., T. Tidwell, H. Zhao, L. Jialin, W. Jiajie, M. Meng, W. Li, W. Huichao, C. Wei, H. Mengling, R. Xiaoqiao, & L. Tonghua. (2020). Theoretical Characteristics of Tibetan Medicine. World Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 6(4), 490-499. doi:10.4103/wjtcm.wjtcm_65_20.
Wangyal, R, T. Tidwell, W. Dhondrup, T. Yungdrung, G. Dhondrup, Q. X. He, & Y. Zhang. (2020). Dataset of Materia Medica in Sowa Rigpa: Tibetan Medicine Compilations and Gawé Dorjé’s Classification System. Data in Brief, 106498. doi:10.1016/j.dib.2020.106498.
Tidwell, T. (2020). “Covid-19 and Tibetan Medicine: An Awakening Tradition in a New Era of Global Health Crisis.” Hot Spots, Fieldsights, online series from Journal of Cultural Anthropology.
Tidwell, T. (2020). Blood and Chuser across Research Paradigms: Constitutive Links in Mapping Biomedical Cancer Maps into Tibetan Medical Nosology. Asian Medicine,15(2), 209-250. doi:10.1163/15734218-12341451.
Dhondrup, W., T. Tidwell, X. Wang, D. Tso, G. Dhondrup, Q. Luo, C. Wangmo, T. Kyi, Y. Liu, X. Meng, Y. Zhang. (2020). “Tibetan Medical Informatics: An Emerging Field in Sowa Rigpa Pharmacological & Clinical Research.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 250, 112481. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2019.112481