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LECTURE ABSTRACT

Over the past decade hundreds of thousands of Uyghur citizens have been detained in a system of “closed concentrated education and training centers” that are commonly referred to by Uyghurs in the region as “reeducation camps.” While significant media and scholarly attention has been focused on the social violence of this system and its effects on Uyghur society more broadly, the internal political order of the camps themselves has yet to be analyzed. Starting from a reading of the history of internment and education in twentieth century China, before turning to evidence drawn from repeated and ongoing interviews with former detainees and numerous classified police and government documents, this talk examines what happens in the cells and classrooms of these camps. It considers how detainees themselves are ranked in the order of the cell, the digital, aural, and textual pedagogical content of camp instruction, and the role of camp workers who act as “life teachers” for detainees. Ultimately, the talk argues that the education model of cell organization does offer “class monitors” some partial forms of autonomy and the power to provide weak protections for other detainees. Camp workers are at times able to acknowledge the fundamental falseness of the educational labour they are called to enact, even as surveillance and coercion prevents them from overt action in response to this acknowledgement. That is to say, human agency is not fully lost within this system of control, it is however, significantly narrowed by coercive and automated power relations within a system that is a paradigmatic example of contemporary internment.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Darren Byler is an anthropologist and Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the author of In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony (Columbia Global Reports 2021) and an ethnographic monograph titled Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City (Duke University Press 2022). His current research interests are focused on policing and carceral theory, infrastructure development and global China.

CEAS LECTURE SERIES

The CEAS Lecture Series is an initiative that advances the University of Chicago's Center for East Asian Studies' mission in fostering dialogue and interdisciplinary collaboration. This annual public lecture series presents eminent scholars who concentrate on the study of East Asia in a variety of disciplines. For more information on the series, follow the link here: https://ceas.uchicago.edu/content/ceas-lecture-series-1

SPONSORSHIP

This event is co-sponsored with the University of Chicago Library, the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights as part of its 25th-anniversary celebration, and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

MESSAGE REGARDING COVID-19 HEALTH AND SAFETY MEASURES

This event is scheduled to take place in-person and will NOT be live streamed. For the health and safety of event attendees, the Center for East Asian Studies will implement appropriate safety measures as it relates to the guidelines and protocols set forth at the time of the of the event.

Individuals who register to attend are requested to read and follow the following protocols and procedures as outlined here:

https://ceas.uchicago.edu/news/ceas-event-updates

Center staff will be closely monitoring the ongoing situation pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will adhere to University of Chicago safety guidelines and protocols as they pertain to in-person gatherings. Any changes, as they relate to this event, will be updated on the CEAS homepage, as well as emails sent to registered attendees.

CEAS Lecture Series ft. Darren Byler