ACLS Awards 2025 Luce/ACLS Collaborative Grant in China Studies to Digital Archive of Settler Colonial Violence in Xinjiang

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to award the 2025 Luce/ACLS Collaborative Grant in China Studies to the project Un-Settling Xinjiang: Archiving, Digitizing and Curating Knowledge of Settler Colonial Violence in China and Beyond.
 
Now in its second year, the Luce/ACLS Collaborative Grant in China Studies supports the development of effective strategies for long-term change through projects that address specific, pressing challenges in the field.

Un-settling Xinjiang will document both lived experiences and official accounts of settler colonialism in Northwest China, extending existing databases through collaborative methods drawn from critical digital humanities, Indigenous studies, and comparative colonialism studies. Timothy Grose, Associate Professor of China Studies at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, will lead a team to curate, translate, digitize, and preserve Chinese, Uyghur, and Kazakh primary sources, creating an accessible digital platform that immerses users in materials documenting state violence in the Uyghur and Kazakh homelands.

The multinational project team has prioritized outreach and engagement beyond traditional academic audiences. David Tobin, Lecturer in East Asian Studies at University of Sheffield, will use the International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS) platform to disseminate policy-relevant reports and impact policy debates about Chinese politics and society. Emily Upson, PhD candidate at Newcastle University, will connect the curated materials with key stakeholders, providing explainers and encouraging curriculum integration while facilitating dialogue with advocates, legal actors, and policymakers.

“Un-settling Xinjiang transforms how we understand state violence in China by connecting it to global patterns of settler colonialism,” said JM Chris Chang, ACLS Program Officer for China Studies. “It exemplifies how digital archives can preserve endangered histories when traditional research methods have been closed off.”

The Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies seeks to advance outstanding scholarship on China and Chinese cultures, histories, and communities. ACLS is currently accepting applications for Early Career Fellowships in China Studies (long-term and flexible) and Travel Grants in China Studies with a deadline of November 5, 2025, 9:00 PM EST. The next competition for the Luce/ACLS Collaborative Grant in China Studies will open in February 2026.