Rian Thum, 2017–2018 | National Humanities Center

Rian Thum (NHC Fellow, 2017–18)

Project Title

Islamic China

Loyola University New Orleans

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Fellowship Work Summary, 2017–18

Rian Thum completed his book Islamic China, which is under contract with Harvard University Press. He published three articles: "Moghul Relations with the Mughals—Economic, Political, and Cultural" for Xinjiang in the Context of Central Eurasian Transformations, edited by Onuma Takehiro, David Brophy, and Shinmen Yasushi (Toyo Bunko, 2018); "Surviving in a 'Society'-Centric World: Comments on Engseng Ho's Inter-Asian Concepts for Mobile Societies" for the Journal of Asian Studies (vol. 76, no. 4, 2017); and with Justin Jacobs, Tom Cliff, David Brophy, Kwangmin Kim, and Madlen Kobi "The Rise of Xinjiang Studies: A JAS New Author Forum" for the Journal of Asian Studies (vol. 77, no. 1, 2018). He completed work on a fourth article "Holy Sites of Serindia (the Tarim Basin) in the 11th and 21st Centuries" for Holy Places in Islam, which is being edited by Mattia Giudetti and Andreas Gorke (Brill, forthcoming). Additionally, he published an entry entitled "The Uyghurs in Modern China" for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (Oxford University Press, 2018), and has two additional entries accepted for the Encyclopedia of Islam (Brill)—"Kāshghar" and "Khotan, town and kingdom." Finally, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times entitled "What Really Happens in China's 'Re-education' camps" (May 15, 2018).