Politics, Economy and International Relations of East Asia Research Cluster
The 21st century has witnessed a rise in authoritarian governance, a dramatic growth in the use of surveillance technologies, and the closure of borders across the globe. Formerly open field sites where researchers have developed professional networks, established human relationships, and worked to produce knowledge based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork have now closed. From violent conflict in Ukraine, to genocide in China and Myanmar, to state-led economic protectionism and asymmetrical covid controls across the world, more and more obstacles have been erected that challenge the production of knowledge in the social sciences and humanities.
These challenges are particularly acute in areas of research related to mobility, marginalised communities, and state violence, which have been deprioritised as the global political focus shifts to economic recovery and traditional security issues. How can researchers rise to these challenges and continue to produce knowledge on urgent social issues? How can researchers develop new methods that are both adaptable and rigorous? How do researchers remain in touch with a closed field site? This event brings together internationally leading experts in their areas of research. Each speaker would prefer to be working in the field but instead has had to develop new methods for a new era.
Chair: Dr David Tobin
Speakers: Dr Rune Steenberg, Dr Sarah A. Son, Dr Jamie Coates, Dr Mukaddas Mijit
Chair Bio: David Tobin (University of Sheffield)
Dr David Tobin is a Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield.
His research on identity and security in global politics focuses on China’s ethnic policy and Han-Uyghur relations, and has published in China Quarterly, Ethnic and Racial Studies, HAU Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Positions - Asia Critique, Oxford Bibliographies, and Inner Asia. His book with Cambridge University Press, Securing China's Northwest Frontier: Identity and Insecurity in Xinjiang, analyses the relationship between identity and security in Chinese policy-making and its impact on Han- Uyghur relations. He presented evidence at all three hearings of the Uyghur Tribunal on state violence and the classified document leak known as the “Xinjiang papers”. David’s current research on China’s new ethnic policy and genocide includes a new interdisciplinary project, “documenting Uyghur diaspora voices,” using film, image, and text to share life stories of Uyghurs separated from their families and homes.