UIS Speaker Series examines human rights atrocities happening in western China

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series presents a lecture and discussion on “Terror Capitalism: Uyghur ‘Reeducation’ and the Chinese Security Industrial Complex.” This event is free and open to the public.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, 2019

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: Darren Byler of the University of Washington will present his research on the current human rights atrocities in western China, where the People’s Republic of China has detained, without trial, an estimated one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in concentration camps, called “reeducation centers.” Byler believes China is working to criminalize and eradicate Muslim culture.

Byler’s extensive ethnographic field work in western China with both Uyghurs and Han Chinese argues that this system of “reeducation” is, in fact, a social engineering system that works in concert with a Chinese form of illiberal capitalism. His fieldwork is able to provide an insider perspective on both populations.

This event is cosponsored by the World Affairs Council of Central Illinois; the UIS Departments of History, Global Studies, and Sociology/Anthropology; the UIS Division of Student Affairs; UIS Office of International Student Services and the UIS Diversity Center.

Individuals with disabilities who anticipate the need for accommodations should contact the UIS Speaker Series Office at 217-206-6245 or speakerseries@uis.edu in advance. For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speaker Series events, visit uis.edu/speakerseries/.