Educators are invited to join us:
Saturday, May 9, 2020 9 am to noon (Pacific Daylight Time)
An estimated one million people, mainly Uyghurs, have been detained in Xinjiang without charge, a fixed sentence, or the right to appeal. After initially denying the existence of these centers, Chinese officials now insist they are vocational schools to combat religious extremism, separatism and terrorism. Heavy surveillance and discriminatory policies have been documented in the region for years, but this massive program of preventive detention and “transformation through education” is unprecedented and has been condemned by many. Outside the centers, technological advances are utilized to monitor and control the population.
Our symposium features presentations by scholars with expertise on Xinjiang and Uyghur history, culture and life. They will discuss Uyghur beliefs and Chinese government policies in the region. Is this cultural genocide? Or is it a measured and essential effort to preserve stability and foster development? What can or should governments, organizations and individuals outside China do?
Dru Gladney - Professor & Chair of Anthropology, Pomona College
Dru Gladney specializes in the peoples, cultures and politics along the ancient and modern Silk Road—in particular, issues of globalization and transnationalism in China and its close neighbors. Over the last few years, he has engaged in a large comparative survey of nomadic families in Western China, bolstered by in-depth fieldwork with nomadic Kazakhs in the Altai Mountains bordering China and Mongolia.
