Join a panel discussion with Uyghur activists and academics to understand the ongoing situation in Xinijiang and impacts on Uyghur community.
The Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), within the School of Social Sciences, has researched themes focusing on post-colonial politics, development and emerging powers. There is an explicit focus on engagement with communities and impacting upon public debates around contentious themes.
Through this new talk series that highlights the experiences of people facing oppression, occupation, and rights abuses, we aim to bring together academics, activists and students to engage on pressing issues of coloniality in the postcolonial world.
Our first talk in the series looks at the region that is homeland of Uyghurs, referred to as Xinjiang in China, and the condition of inhabitants there.
While international media has begun to highlight various examples of collective punishment of Uyghur Muslims by the State, including what many see as concentration camps, Beijing continues to deny it as ‘foreign propaganda’.
Who are the Uyghurs? How does China treat Uyghurs living under its control in Xinjiang Autonomous Region? Why should the world, including those of us in the UK, care about what is happening to Uyghurs? Is it fair to understand the dehumanising experiences of Uyghurs as one of colonised people?
Our panel members include Uyghur activists and experts on China and Uyghurs who will be providing their insights, followed by a question & answer round with the audience.
The panel will be chaired by Professor Dibyesh Anand.
About the Panelists
Dolkun Isa
Dolkun Isa is a former student-leader of the pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University in 1988. He founded the Students’ Science and Culture Union at the University in 1987 and worked on programs to eliminate illiteracy and to promote science and to lead other students in East Turkestan. Isa has consistently advocated for the rights of the Uyghur people and has raised the issue in the United Nations, the institutions of the European Union and in individual states. He has worked to mobilise the Uyghur diaspora community to collectively advocate for their rights and the rights of the Uyghur population in the Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. He is currently serving as the President of the World Uyghur Congress.
David Tobin
David Tobin is Hallsworth Research Fellow in the Political Economy of China at the University of Manchester. He is currently researching how postcolonial relations between China and the West shape foreign policymaking and ethnic politics in contemporary China. He is particularly interested in how "anti-hegemonism" in Chinese theories of world order drives the One-Belt-One-Road initiative and security policies in frontier regions. His forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press, 'Securing China's Northwestern Frontier: Identity and Insecurity in Xinjiang', analyses the relationship between identity and security in Chinese policy-making and ethnic relations between Han and Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Aziz Isa
Aziz Isa Elkun is a poet, writer and academic. He was born in East Turkistan (Uyghur Autonomous Region, China). He graduated from Xinjiang University majoring in Russian and language. He has been living in London since 2001. He studied at Birkbeck University in London. He has published many articles in Uyghur language and co-authored English language articles in Inner Asia and Central Asian Survey (‘Invitation to a Mourning Ceremony’: Perspectives on the Uyghur Internet and ‘Islam by Smartphone: the changing sounds of Uyghur religiosity’). He is an active member of the exile Uyghur Community and founder of a Uyghur music group – the London Uyghur Ensemble. Since September 2017, he has served as Secretary of the International PEN Uyghur Centre. Currently, he is working as a researcher on a British Academy Sustainable Development project “Uyghur Meshrep in Kazakhstan” based at SOAS, University of London.
