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Staff Profile

Emily Upson

Postgraduate Research Student

Background

I am an ESRC-funded PhD candidate in Area studies, focusing on transnational advocacy networks for Uyghur human rights, both in East Turkestan and in the diaspora. I volunteered with the Xinjiang Research Database (shahit.biz) for a short while, before conducting a research report with the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) on proof-of-life videos. These professional experiences in advocacy fields showed me that many key actors in human rights fields question how to optimise their efforts, which fuels my research today, positing the methodological innovation of 'scholar-activist participation'. Between expert interviews and autoethnographic experiences in professional endeavours, I hope to illuminate questions of efficacy, legitimacy, and the complex relationship between theory and practice.


I graduated from Reading University with a first class BA in English Literature and Creative Writing, which strongly focused towards non-fiction and social justice. I then graduated from University College London (UCL) with an MSc in Social Anthropology, looking at how EU funding towards peacebuilding was spent in Northern Ireland in 2019.

Research


Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other ethnically Turkic people face repressive treatment in East Turkestan, determined to be a genocide by independent peoples courts and several parliamentary decrees, as well as internationally through tactics of transnational repression. The transnational advocacy network is bound by a similar focus on 'Uyghur rights', and creates a constellation of victims, academics, lawyers, and human rights practitioners. All of these actors have unique perceptions of the priorities for advocates, both in terms of identifying the most pressing problems, and pursuing the most effective solutions for change-making.

My PhD thesis investigates transnational advocacy networks for Uyghur human rights. This research fundamentally asks, how do expert advocates work to prevent atrocities in East Turkestan or externally, how are their actions related to their perceptions of efficacy? How do the professional and advocacy networks of individual experts shape their perceptions of change-making, and how do experts try to shape their networks to improve the efficacy and legitimacy of themselves or their strategies? Within professional spheres, many actors have their own speculations about potential causation between advocacy outputs and policy change on the ground, yet these theories are by necessity inductive. This research adopts a creative, inductive methodology, that begins with problem-centred expert interviews of key stakeholders across sectors and countries, and poses the methodological innovation of 'scholar-activist participation' as an insightful technique to better understand these routes. What is the complex relationship between theory (broadly construed) and practice?


My Broader research interests include:

  • Anthropologies of Peacebuilding, Conflict, and Diplomacy
  • Transnational Advocacy Networks
  • Human Rights and Multilateral Organisations


Conferences:

  • Transdisciplinarity in Transgressions: the Xinjiang Crisis and the ‘International’ at Large: Invited Panelist, on “Probing the affective infrastructures of (in)security,” Law and Society Global Conference (Lisbon, Portugal, July 2022).
  • Uyghur Proof-of-Life Videos and their Implications for International Concern: Paper presented at the “The Xinjiang Crisis”, Newcastle University, September 2021. Available online, at 48:00 time stamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIllIOWocFg
  • “China’s Proof-of-Life Videos: A tool of intimidation and violation of Uyghur family unity”: Online Panel, March 2021, Discussing the UHRP Report. Available online: https://uhrp.org/event/chinas-proof-of-life-videos-a-tool-of-intimidation-and-violation-of-uyghur-family-unity/


Funding:

  • 2021-2025: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)'s Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Pathway (NINE DTP) 3.5 Studentship: Language Based Area Studies pathway


Supervisors:

  • Jo Smith Finley, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University
  • Silvia Pasquetti, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University
  • Rhona Smith, Law School, Newcastle University





Teaching

SOC2058: Understanding Social Change and Transformation (Teaching Assistant)

Publications