the remote chay podcast
Welcome to the Remote Chay podcast! Here we invite experts to talk with us about two overlapping themes. First, how do we research areas of the globe with extremely limited accessibility due to surveillance and state restrictions? We have developed a methodological approach called “remote ethnography” which we invite our guests to discuss, supplement and expand. Second, what can we say about what is happening in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region? This is one of these regions that is notoriously difficult to research – both epistemologically and ethically. All of our guests provide answers to one of these two questions, many to both. Remote Chay is an ongoing conversation and we invite all of our listeners to participate in it – comment, reach out, share and discuss. We look forward to the exchange!
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Remote Chay is a podcast started in 2024 by the team of EU-funded project “Remote Ethnography of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” an interdisciplinary project run in collaboration between Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and Université libre de Bruxelles.
EPISODE 1
Introduction
​This is the first episode of our Remote Chay Podcast – a podcast where we explore methods of “remote ethnography” and reality on the ground in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from an academic, critical perspective. In this episode the three hosts of the podcast, Vanessa Frangville from Université libre de Bruxelles, Björn Alpermann from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and Rune Steenberg from Univerzita Palackého v Olomouc introduce the podcast and talk about the development of the methodological approach of remote ethnography and how it and other methods have been used successfully in researching the closed region of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, homeland to the Uyghurs and also known as East Turkistan. The episode gives a preview of future episodes and situates the podcast within our research project.
EPISODE 2
The development of uyghur studies in the 21st century
In Episode 2, Rian Thum (historian of Islam in China, University of Manchester) reflects on the history of Xinjiang and Uyghur studies through his own journey as a historian and an anthropologist. He highlights the recent development of the field through remote ethnography methods and offers an optimistic vision of the future of Uyghur studies.
EPISODE 3
Studying Mosque Destructions in China From Afar
In 2016 China’s Party-state started a campaign of “Sinification of religions”, targeting among other things mosques built in the “Arab style”. In episode 3, Ruslan Yusupov explains how this policy leads to remodeling, at times even destruction, of mosques throughout China and how we can study these processes remotely. Ruslan is a social anthropologist at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University who has conducted fieldwork in Chinese Muslim (Hui) communities in Yunnan Province.