Challenging the Harmonious Society - Tibetans and Uyghurs in Socialist China

This workshop is a follow-up event of the panel 'State policies and local responses in China's West' that took place in November 2010 at the conference Asian Diversity in Global Context at the University of Copenhagen.

NOTE: The workshop is a closed event. Participation by invitation only.

Eleven scholars will present a paper at the workshop.

The experts on Tibetan experiences are:

• Ms. Elisa Cencetti, PhD Student in Anthropology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

Paper title: "Harmonious" new villages on the Tibetan Plateau: the spatial reproduction of the current P.R.C.'s politically correct forma mentis

• Dr. Andrew Fischer, Senior Lecturer in Population and Social Policy, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Paper title: The Great Transformations of Tibet and Xinjiang: a comparative analysis of rapid labour transitions in times of rapid growth in two contested minority regions of China

• Dr. Melvyn Goldstein, Professor in Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University.
Paper title: China's Tibet Problem: Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives

• Dr. Emily Yeh, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Colorado.
Paper title: On the rise (and fall?) of the Green Tibetan in China

• Dr. Tracy Zhang, Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, McGill University.
Paper title: Tibetan Carpets made in Lhasa: A Case Study of "New" Tibet Developmentalism

The experts on Uyghur experiences are:

• Dr. Nicholas Bequelin, Senior Researcher, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch.
Paper title: TBA

• Dr. Gardner Bovingdon, Associate Professor of Central Eurasian Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultures, Indiana University.
Paper title: Forced harmony in Xinjiang: extraordinary orchestration since 9/11

• Dr. Michael Dillon, former Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Durham.
Paper title: Religion, repression and traditional Uyghur culture in southern Xinjiang: Kashghar and Khotan in 2010

• Dr. Joanne Smith Finley, Lecturer in Chinese Studies, Section Head East Asian Studies Degree Programme Director, Chinese and Cultural Studies at Newcastle University.
Paper title: Uyghur-Han Intermarriage in Xinjiang: Contesting harmony through a community taboo

• Dr. Rachel Harris, Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, Department of Music, SOAS.
Paper title: The sonic negotiation of space in rural Uyghur society

• Mr. Eric Schluessel, PhD Student Central Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.
Paper title: Contemporary Uyghur social thought and the idealist legacy

Furthermore, the opening lecture will be delivered by Dr. Dru C. Gladney, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University.

Discussants are Dr. Robert Barnett, Adjunct Professor and Director of Tibetan Studies, Columbia University and Dr. Chris Hann, Professor and Director of Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle.

A limited number of scholars from Scandinavia will also attend the workshop as invited guests.

If you have any queries, please contact the organisers of the workshop:
Dr. Trine Brox, Assistant Professor, China Studies and Tibetology, University of Copenhagen [trinebrox@hum.ku.dk ].
Dr. Ildikó Bellér-Hann, Associate Professor, Central Asia Studies, University of Copenhagen [ildiko@hum.ku.dk ].

Date 20-21 May 2011
Place NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, address: Leifsgade 33, 3rd floor, DK-2300 Copenhagen S.
Sponsor The Danish Council for Independent Research | Humanities (FKK)
Partner ADI - Asian Dynamics Initiative