He earned a B.A. in History (with concentration in East Asian Studies) at Carleton College in 2001 and a M.A. degree in East Asian Regional Studies at Harvard University. In March 2014, Oidtmann received his Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University.[2][3][4]
Oidtmann's book Forging the Golden Urn: Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet, 1792-1911 (2018) is a political history of reincarnation in China and Tibet from the late 1700s through the present.
(With Yang Hongwei), A Study of Qing Dynasty "Xiejia" Rest Houses in Xunhua Subprefecture, Gansu, in Muslims in Amdo Tibetan Society: Multidisciplinary Approaches, Marie-Paule Hille, Bianca Horlemann, Paul K. Nietupski, eds., Lexington Books, 2015, 354 p., pp. 21–46
Review by Wesley Chaney (History Department, Stanford University) of Between Patron and Priest: Amdo Tibet Under Qing Rule, In Dissertation Reviews ("Between Patron and Priest is both an encyclopedic treasure trove of information and an important intervention into scholarly debates in a range of fields — Tibetan history, Qing history, colonial studies, and legal pluralism. Through his use of a range of sources in several different languages, Oidtmann brings a completely new level of depth and detail to discussions of the Tibetan-Qing encounter.")
In an interview published on the China Study Journal website, American tibetologist Robert Barnett claims that "we know vastly more about Tibetan areas during the Qing and Republican periods because of work by Hsiao Ting Lin, Max Oidtmann, Bill Coleman, Scott Relyea and other China scholars."[6]