[9] From fall 1990 to spring 1991, he was an adjunct assistant professor at California State University, Northridge, teaching courses in US politics.

[9] In 1991–1992, he was a visiting assistant professor in comparative politics at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, in Nanjing, China.

[9][11] On account of his rejection of the claim of a physical and cultural genocide in Tibet, his underlining of the various benefits, rights, and material gains Tibetans have reaped from the region's modernization, and his indictment of what he calls "ethnonationalism" on the part of exile Tibetans,[12] Sautman has drawn criticism from writers supportive of an independent or free Tibet such as Jamyang Norbu[13] and Elliot Sperling.

[14] Jamyang Norbu called Sautman a "running-dog propagandist" in 2008 and accused him of selectively using dubious facts and figures, skillfully applying "academic gobbledygook", and jumping to conclusions without citing evidence.

"[17] Australian sinologist Colin Mackerras sees Barry Sautman as the main contributor to Tibet studies in Hong Kong's universities.