prof. dr. mr. T.H.F. (Tjalling) Halbertsma

Tjalling Halbertsma (1969) is professor by special appointment of International Studies, with a special focus on East Asia at Campus Fryslân on behalf of The Groningen University Fund and Director International of the Centre for East Asian Studies Groningen. He is boardmember of various private foundations and of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) at Leiden University. Following his first appointment at the University of Groningen in 2013, Halbertsma served two terms as chairholder of the endowed Chair for East Asian Studies with a focus on modern day Mongolia at the Faculty of Arts (unifocus video).

Halbertsma spent many years working in China and Mongolia. Between 2008 and 2012 he served as the first Dutch attaché posted to Ulaanbaatar by the Netherlands Embassy in Beijing. In 2007 Halbertsma completed an external PhD at the Sinological Institute of Leiden University on the Nestorian heritage which he rediscovered and documented in Inner Mongolia between 1999 and 2006. His documentation of the nestorian heritage was exhibited at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden in 2007. Much of this heritage has been lost due to looting.

Halbertsma has written extensively about Asia for various international newspapers, including South China Morning Post, Asian Art Newspaper and Dagblad Trouw (100+ contributions), frequently appeared as a commentator on radio and television, and is author of a number of books and travellogues on China and Mongolia.

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