Please click here to be directed to our China page, as China COI experts may be required in Uyghur cases.

Experts on Uyghur

Dr. Henryk Szadziewski

Dr. Henryk Szadziewski, BA (Hons) University of Leeds, M.Sc. University of Wales, and Ph.D. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is Director of Research at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Washington DC. He lived in China for five years, three of those in Xinjiang, and has traveled across Central Asia. He speaks Mandarin and has a working knowledge of the Uyghur language. Dr. Szadziewski has authored numerous reports and peer-reviewed journal articles on the human rights of the Uyghur people, including primary research with Uyghur refugees. He also provides expert testimony on Uyghur cases for the Dutch Refugee Council and advises immigration attorneys on Uyghur asylum claims.

Dr. Joanne Smith Finley

Dr. Smith Finley, BA (Hons), PhD, University of Leeds, Lecturer in Chinese Studies, Newcastle University. Her thesis focused on changing identities among the Muslim Uyghur nationality of Xinjiang, NW China, and contemporary Uyghur-Han relations. Her research interests include the formation, transformation, hybridisation and globalisation of identities among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, NW China.

Dr. Rachel Harris

Rachel Harris is a Reader at SOAS, University of London.  She is fluent in Uyghur and other Chinese languages. She has traveled extensively in the Xinjiang region since 1991, including extended periods of fieldwork in urban and rural locations. She publishes on Chinese minority policies, Uyghur national identity construction, popular music and resistance. She has published and blogged about social media in Xinjiang, and the 2009 inter-ethnic violence in the regional capital Urumchi. Her current research concerns the rise of new forms of Islam amongst the Uyghurs, and state policies towards Islam in Xinjiang. She has previous experience as an expert witness in Uyghur asylum cases in the UK.