CfP: Special Issue: Non-Orientalist Approaches to Modern Uyghur Studies

Call for Papers
Special Issue: Non-Orientalist Approaches to Modern Uyghur Studies
Guest Editors: Immanuel Ness and Tugrul Keskin
Submission Deadline: January 1, 2026
Journal: TBA

Overview

Over the past two decades, Uyghur Studies has gained unprecedented global attention, yet much of the scholarship remains entangled in Orientalist assumptions, securitization discourses, and Eurocentric epistemologies. Dominant narratives often portray Uyghur identity, religion, and politics through the lens of state repression, extremism, or cultural victimhood—flattening the community’s historical complexity, agency, and intellectual traditions. This special issue seeks to move beyond such paradigms by fostering non-Orientalist, decolonial, and critical perspectives on the modern Uyghur experience within China, Central Asia, and the broader transnational context.

We invite contributions that interrogate how power, knowledge, and representation shape the study of Uyghur society, culture, religion, and politics. The goal is to create a platform for epistemic plurality, challenging Western-centric frameworks while also critically examining Chinese state narratives.

Themes and Topics

We welcome papers from across the humanities and social sciences that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Decolonizing Uyghur Studies: Rethinking epistemological and methodological frameworks beyond Orientalism and Cold War binaries.
• Uyghur Modernities: Theorizing modernity, progress, and reform from within local, Islamic, or Turkic intellectual traditions.
• Empire, Nation, and Space: Alternative readings of Xinjiang / Uyghur regions within the contexts of Chinese, Russian, and Central Asian imperial histories.
• Language, Literature, and Aesthetics: Non-Orientalist interpretations of modern Uyghur poetry, prose, and cultural production.
• Religion and Everyday Life: Islam, Sufism, and secularization in Uyghur communities without reduction to “radicalism” or “extremism.”
• Migration and Transnationalism: Uyghur diasporic subjectivities and global networks beyond victimization narratives.
• Ethnography and Ethics: Reflexive approaches to fieldwork, translation, and representation in Uyghur Studies.
• Knowledge Politics: The role of Western academia, media, and think-tanks in shaping global imaginaries of “Xinjiang.”
• Digital Frontiers: Uyghur online spaces, algorithmic surveillance, and resistance in the age of AI.

Aims and Significance

This special issue aims to reframe Uyghur Studies as a site of theoretical innovation, not merely a geopolitical or humanitarian topic. By foregrounding indigenous epistemologies, transregional connections, and critical theory, it seeks to decenter Western authority and amplify Uyghur and non-Western scholarly voices. The issue will serve as a foundational step toward a pluralist and dialogical understanding of Uyghur society in the 21st century.

Submission Guidelines

• Abstracts (300–400 words) due by: November 3, 2025
• Full papers (6,000–8,000 words) due by: January 1, 2026
• Manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.
• Please submit your abstracts and manuscripts to: tugrulk[at]vt.edu 
• For queries, contact the Guest Editor: immanuel.ness[at]brooklyn.cuny.edu and/or tugrulk[at]vt.edu

About the Special Issue

This special issue forms part of a larger academic endeavor to reconceptualize Orientalism, decolonize area studies, and foster a genuinely multipolar framework of knowledge production. It draws upon the growing intersections among Chinese Studies, Critical Xinjiang Studies, Global Turkology, and Eurasian Decolonial Thought. By positioning Uyghur Studies within broader transregional conversations on Islam, modernity, and empire, the issue seeks to reshape the intellectual contours of Asia’s postcolonial scholarship.

References:

Acharya, A. (2017). After liberal hegemony: The advent of a multiplex world order. Ethics & International Affairs, 31(3), 271–285. https://doi.org/10.1017/S089267941700020X
Keskin, T. (2012). Sociology of Africa: A non-Orientalist approach to African, Africana, and Black studies. Critical Sociology, 38(6), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920512441633
Keskin, T. (Ed.). (2019). Middle East studies after September 11: Neo-Orientalism, American hegemony, and academia. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.
Said, E. W. (1994). Culture and imperialism. New York, NY: Vintage.

Source: CFP: Special Issue: Non-Orientalist Approaches to Modern Uyghur Studies – Submission Deadline: January 1, 2026, H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.