For Rahile Dawut: imprisoned Uyghur anthropologist

Rahile Dawut is a Uyghur ethnographer known for her expertise in Uyghur folklore and traditions. Formerly a professor at Xinjiang University, where she founded the Minorities Folklore Research Centre, she was disappeared by the Chinese government in 2017 and has not been seen since. In 2023, Rahile received a life sentence for endangering state security.

Source: Wikipedia

‘During her more than 25 years as a scholar of Uyghur culture and folklore, Professor Dawut trained dozens of Uyghur students. She was famous at the university for her close relationship with her students. Room 604 in the Technology Building, the Xinjiang Folklore Research Centre, was where Dawut and her students used to work together. Unlike many other professors, she encouraged her students to go out into the field to conduct ethnographic research and understand the situation through personal experience. Dawut and her students were like an extended family: she took care of their financial, emotional, and personal problems; she was a problem-solver for each of us. Her home on the university campus was a place for her students to have parties and celebrations, and a place for them to go whenever they had difficulties.’

Source: Rahile Dawut: A Lifetime Passion That Ended with a Life Sentence, 13 November 2023.

Agenda

We’d like to read and chat about some of her work.

You can find some of her work here. Includes full chapters and papers. Super nice.

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