Newcastle University

Background

Dr. Smith Finley obtained her BA Honours in Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds in 1991. For three years between 1992 and 1994, she studied Japanese language and culture, and taught EFL in Kyoto, Japan. She then returned to the UK to pursue an interdisciplinary Ph.D in Chinese Studies / Social Anthropology at the University of Leeds. Her thesis focused on changing identities among the Muslim Uyghur nationality of Xinjiang, NW China, and contemporary Uyghur-Han relations. This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK, and included a year of ethnographic fieldwork (informal interviews and direct observation). She obtained her Ph.D in June 1999. Between 1997 and 1999, she worked as a teaching assistant on undergraduate Chinese language and postgraduate Chinese-English translation modules for the University of Leeds. She joined the Newcastle University as Lecturer in Chinese Studies in January 2000.

Roles and Responsibilities

Within the School of Modern Languages, Dr. Smith Finley is Head of the East Asian Studies section and Degree Programme Director for the BA Hons Chinese/Japanese and Cultural Studies degrees (TT41; T190/T290). She also sits on the School's Marketing Committee and on the Working Group for the implementation of the Undergraduate Academic Framework. In Semester 1, Dr. Smith Finley is Acting Year Abroad Officer for China (outgoing students).

Qualifications

BA Honours Modern Chinese Studies (University of Leeds, 1987-1991) -

Chinese language (Mandarin), documents, history, politics, cultural institutions, and modern Chinese literature. Options in Japanese language and modern Japanese literature.

Ph.D by Research in Chinese Studies / Social Anthropology (University of Leeds, 1994-1999) - 

Thesis title: “Changing Uyghur Identities in Xinjiang in the 1990s.” Supervised by Professor Gregor Benton (formerly of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds) and Dr. Ray Pawson (Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds). Kindly funded by an ESRC postgraduate studentship (3.5 years).

Cambridge/RSA CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) (September-October 2000) -

International House, Stowell Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne: Grade A.

Previous Positions

January 1997-March 1999:
Teaching assistant - Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds. Responsibilities: teaching / assessing Chinese language (undergraduate); assessing modern Chinese history (undergraduate) and Chinese-English Translation (postgraduate).

July-December 1998:
Researcher/Interpreter - Totem Productions, London SW11. “The Dragon’s Ascent,” a multi-media project on the history of Chinese civilisation (TV documentary series, book, CD Rom). Responsibilities: research for films/stills; interpreting for directors and production crew ; organising stills shoots; interviewing; fixing; creating a stills database.

April 1992-August 1994:
EFL instructor - English language schools in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan.
Responsibilities: teaching EFL to Japanese of various ages.

Memberships

Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS), British Association for Chinese Studies (BACS).

Languages

Spoken and written Chinese, Japanese and Uyghur; written French and German.

Informal Interests

Aside from academic activities, Dr Smith Finley writes occasional articles for the UK media and acts as consultant to a number of independent documentary filmmakers, news correspondents, legal firms, and governmental and non-governmental organisations. She is a trained classical pianist.

Research Interests

Current research interests include the formation, transformation, hybridisation and globalisation of multiple identities among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, NW China; repression, resistance (especially Islamic renewal) and accommodation in Xinjiang since the 1997 Ghulja disturbances; alternative representations of Uyghur identities in popular song/culture; the socio-cultural analysis of gendered Uyghur proverbs.

Current Work

Dr. Smith Finley is currently working on a monograph 'The Art of Symbolic Resistance: Uyghur Identities and Uyghur-Han Relations in Contemporary Xinjiang.' This is an ethnographic study of evolving Uyghur identities over a period of 20 years (from the 1989 collapse of Marxist-Leninist parties in Eastern Europe through the 1997 Ghulja disturbances to the 2009 Urumchi riots).

Together with Professor Zang Xiaowei (Sheffield University), Dr. Smith Finley recently co-organised an international Publication Workshop titled “Uyghur youth identities in urban Xinjiang.” This event took place on Friday 8th July 2011 at the White Rose East Asia Centre in Sheffield. Selected papers, together with non-conference contributions, will form the basis for an edited book to be published in 2012 in the Routledge series: Studies of Ethnicity in Asia.

Dr. Smith Finley has also been working on four research articles: the first, which examines underlying causes of the Urumchi riots of July 2009, was published in Inner Asia in June 2011; a second discusses the promotion and contestation of social harmony in Chinese TV drama, Xinjiang Girls; the third analyses the gendering of (ethno-) national politics in the hostess industry in Urumchi, Xinjiang; and the fourth explores how geo-political territory, identity and cultural ownership are claimed and contested through the production, transmission and consumption of pop fusion.

Future Research

Dr. Smith Finley's next project will involve the socio-cultural analysis of a corpus of over 200 gendered proverbs concerning male and female roles, and male-female interactions among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang. Textual analysis will be supported by qualitative data gathered during a series of focus group discussions involving Uyghur men and women of different age groups. This joint research will be conducted with folklorist Dilmurat Mahmut, formerly of Xinjiang Normal University.

Research Roles

A coordinator of ANNE (Asia Network North East), an informal, multi-disciplinary forum of Asia experts based at Newcastle University.

Postgraduate Supervision

One IPhD student supervised to completion: Lingzhi (Liz) Gu (Topic: occidentalism in the academic discourse of translation studies in China, 2009).

Esteem Indicators 

Dr. Smith Finley was invited to present at several international conferences and workshops, including:

• 10th-12th May 2012: 'Return to Kashgar'. International Workshop in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of Ambassadør Gunnar Jarring. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Organised by Dr. Ildikó Bellér-Hann (University of Copenhagen), Dr. Jun Sugawara (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) and Prof. Birgit Schlyter (Stockholm University).
• 3rd-4th November 2011: 'Beyond "The Xinjiang Problem"', International Workshop held at the Australian National University (ANU). See her Keynote lecture here:  http://iu.edu/~panasia/events/xinjiang/
• 20-21 May 2011: 'Challenging the Harmonious Society: Tibetans and Uyghurs in Socialist China', International Workshop held at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), University of Copenhagen, Denmark. http://asiandynamics.ku.dk/english/activities/archive/tibetans_uyghurs/
• 30th April, 2010: 'Xinjiang and Travel Writing' Workshop held at Liverpool University, organised by Professor Charles Forsdick (Liverpool University) and Professor Alex Hughes (University of Kent).  www.liv.ac.uk/soclas/conferences/xinjiang/index.htm
• 15th April 2010: 'Xinjiang Riots 2009', One-day strategic seminar organised by Dr Uradyn Bulag of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Unit (MIASU), University of Cambridge.http://innerasiaresearch.org/?page_id=235

Dr. Smith Finley referees articles and reviews books for many leading scholarly journals, including Asian Ethnicity, The China Journal, The China Quarterly, Inner Asia, Modern China, Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and the Equal Rights Review. She also refereed a monograph for the White Horse Press in Cambridge. Her first published article ‘Four Generations of Uyghurs’ was named as one of the best to appear in the early issues of Inner Asia in a THES review. Her chapter ‘“Ethnic Anomaly” or Modern Uyghur Survivor? A Case Study of the Minkaohan Hybrid Identity in Xinjiang’ was singled out for commendation by Professor Nicholas Tapp (Australian National University) in a 2008 review of her co-edited volume, Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia (2007).

Funding

2011: China and Inner Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies (CIAC-AAS).

Funding for Publication Workshop 'Uyghur Youth Identities in Urban Xinjiang', White Rose East Asia Centre WREAC, Sheffield, 8th July 2011. Additional funding provided by WREAC.

2004: China and Inner Asia Council (CIAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in conjunction with the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation / British Academy.

Funding for International Conference 'Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia', 5th-6th November, 2004, co-organised with Dr Ildikó Bellér-Hann; Dr Cristina Cesàro; and Dr Rachel Harris, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Additional funding provided by SOAS.

Undergraduate Teaching

• CHN1005 Introduction to Chinese Culture
• SML1022 Introduction to Cultural Studies

• CHN2004 Contemporary Chinese Society
• GEO2047 Political Geography (East Asia seminar)

• CHN4001 Level C Chinese language (Authentic Texts)
• CHN4061 Level D Chinese language (Chinese-English Translation and Interpreting)
• CHN4004 Nation and Nationalisms in Contemporary China
• SML4099 Dissertation (China)

• Smith Finley J. The search for ideological affirmation in Xinjiang travel writing: Basil Davidson's Turkestan Alive. Studies in Travel Writing 2013. In Preparation.
• Smith Finley J. Turkestan Lovesongs, 'New Flamenco' and the Emergence of the 'World Citizen' in Urban Xinjiang. 2013. In Preparation.
• Smith Finley J. Promoting / contesting harmony in TV drama: Ethnic intermarriage in Xinjiang Girls. In: Beller-Hann and Brox, ed. On the Fringes of the Harmonious Society: Tibetans and Uyghurs in Socialist China. 2013. In Preparation.
• Smith Finley J. 'Your Men will be Slaves and Your Women Whores': Gender, Ethnicity and Nation among Uyghur Hostesses in Ürümchi. In: Smith Finley and Zang, ed. Uyghur Youth Identities in Urban Xinjiang. London: Routledge, 2012. In Preparation.
• Smith Finley J. The Art of Symbolic Resistance: Uyghur Identities and Uyghur-Han Relations in Contemporary Xinjiang. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishing, 2012. In Preparation.
• Smith Finley J. "No rights without duties": Minzu pingdeng [nationality equality] in Xinjiang since the 1997 Ghulja disturbances. Inner Asia 2011, 13(1), 73-96.
• Smith Finley J. Heimer, M., Thogersen, S. (eds.) 'Doing Fieldwork in China', Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2006 [Book review]. The China Journal 2008, 59, 172-174.
• Bellér-Hann I, Cesàro MC, Harris RA, Smith Finley J, ed. Situating The Uyghurs between China and Central Asia. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.
• Smith Finley J. ‘Ethnic Anomaly’ or Modern Uyghur Survivor? A Case Study of the Minkaohan Hybrid Identity in Xinjiang. In: Bellér-Hann, I; Cesàro, MC; Harris, R; Smith Finley, J, ed. Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, pp. 219-237.
• Smith Finley J. Chinese Oppression in Xinjiang, Middle Eastern Conflicts and Global Islamic Solidarities among the Uyghurs. Journal of Contemporary China 2007, 16(53), 627-654.
• Smith JN. The Quest for National Unity in Uyghur Popular Song: Barren Chickens, Stray Dogs, Fake Immortals and Thieves. In: Biddle, I; Knights, V, ed. Music, National Identity and the Politics of Location : Between the Global and the Local. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, pp. 115-141.
• Smith JN. Maintaining margins: The politics of ethnographic fieldwork in Chinese Central Asia. The China Journal 2006, (56), 131-147.
• Smith JN. Dillon, M., 'Xinjiang: China's Muslim Far Northwest', London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003 [Book review]. The China Quarterly 2004, 178, 519-521.
• Jun J, Smith JN (trans.). 'Islam in Guangxi' magazine: A Symbol of the Guangxi Muslim New Culture Movement. China Study Journal 2004,19 1 21-27.
• Rewaidula D, Rewaidula A, Smith JN (trans.). Islamic Culture and the Uyghurs. China Study Journal 2004,19 1 28-31.
• Smith JN. 'Making Culture Matter': Symbolic, Spatial, and Social Boundaries between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. Asian Ethnicity 2002, 3(2), 153-174.
• Smith J. Four generations of Uyghurs: The shift towards ethno-political ideologies among Xinjiang's youth. Inner Asia 2000, 2(2), 195-224.