PROF Rachel Harris' Outputs (58)

Dissonant Voices in China’s Harmonious Society: From Cassettes to WeChat, Nation to Anashid (2025)
Book Chapter
Harris, R. (in press). Dissonant Voices in China’s Harmonious Society: From Cassettes to WeChat, Nation to Anashid. In N. Manabe, & E. Drott (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Protest Music. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190653866.013.0034

This chapter takes a medium-term view of developments in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region over a period of twenty years, during which the indigenous Turkic Muslim Uyghurs were collectively transformed in official discourse from “ethnic separ... Read More about Dissonant Voices in China’s Harmonious Society: From Cassettes to WeChat, Nation to Anashid.

Introduction to the HAU Film Symposium on "The Thirty Boys" (2024)
Other
(2024). Introduction to the HAU Film Symposium on "The Thirty Boys". Chicago

The Aesthetics and Imaginaries of Uyghur Heritage, Chinese Tourism, and the Xinjiang Dance Craze (2024)
Journal Article
Harris, R. (in press). The Aesthetics and Imaginaries of Uyghur Heritage, Chinese Tourism, and the Xinjiang Dance Craze. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 30(8), 872-887. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2024.2342289

In parks and town squares across China in 2023, amateur dance enthusiasts engaged in a nationwide ‘Xinjiang dance’ craze, a phenomenon reflected and amplified on social media. For outside observers this might seem a bizarre development following the... Read More about The Aesthetics and Imaginaries of Uyghur Heritage, Chinese Tourism, and the Xinjiang Dance Craze.

Review of: The Sound of Salvation: Voice, Gender, and the Sufi Mediascape in China, by Guangtian Ha, New York, NY, Columbia University Press, 2022, 312 pp., $140.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780231198066; $35.00 (paperback), ISBN: 9780231198073 (2023)
Journal Article
Harris, R. Review of: The Sound of Salvation: Voice, Gender, and the Sufi Mediascape in China, by Guangtian Ha, New York, NY, Columbia University Press, 2022, 312 pp., $140.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780231198066; $35.00 (paperback), ISBN: 9780231198073. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 24(4), 626-629. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2023.2269709

The Complicity of Heritage: Cultural Heritage and Genocide in the Uyghur Region (2023)
Report
Harris, R., & Isa Elkun, A. The Complicity of Heritage: Cultural Heritage and Genocide in the Uyghur Region

Uyghur Religious Heritage under China’s 'Anti-Religious Extremism' Campaigns (2022)
Book Chapter
Harris, R. Uyghur Religious Heritage under China’s 'Anti-Religious Extremism' Campaigns. In J. B. Cuno, & T. G. Weiss (Eds.), Cultural Heritage and Mass Atrocities. Getty Publications

Women’s Chay Gatherings in Kazakhstan: Sustaining identity in migrant communities (2022)
Book Chapter
Harris, R., & Karimova, Z. (2022). Women’s Chay Gatherings in Kazakhstan: Sustaining identity in migrant communities. In A. Mirsultan, E. Schluessel, & E. Sulaiman (Eds.), Community Still Matters: Uyghur Culture and Society in Central Asian Context (203-217). NIAS Press

Music, Terror, and Civilizing Projects in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (2022)
Book Chapter
Harris, R., & Isa Elkun, A. (2022). Music, Terror, and Civilizing Projects in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In A. Impey (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Music and Human Rights. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003043478-24

The national hit song Little Apple released by the Chopstick brothers in May 2014, was a catchy, synthesizer-heavy, retro-style love song with an insistent beat. The song also resounded across the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region in north-west China... Read More about Music, Terror, and Civilizing Projects in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The Soundscapes Turn in Ethnomusicology: Sonic territoriality and the Islamic revival across Chinese-Central Asian borders (2021)
Book Chapter
Harris, R. (2021). The Soundscapes Turn in Ethnomusicology: Sonic territoriality and the Islamic revival across Chinese-Central Asian borders. In S. Cottrell (Ed.), Music, Dance and Anthropology. Royal Anthropological Institute; Sean Kingston Publishing

Ethnographies of Islam in China (2020)
Book
Harris, R., Ha, G., & Jaschok, M. (Eds.). (2020). Ethnographies of Islam in China. University of Hawai'i Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824886431

In the late 1970s Islam regained its force by generating novel forms of piety and forging new paths in politics throughout the world, including China. The Islamic revival in China, which came to fruition in the 2000s and the 2010s, prompted increases... Read More about Ethnographies of Islam in China.

Listening in on Uyghur Wedding Videos: Piety, Tradition, and Self-fashioning (2020)
Book Chapter
Harris, R., & Dawut, R. (2020). Listening in on Uyghur Wedding Videos: Piety, Tradition, and Self-fashioning. In R. Harris, G. Ha, & M. Jaschok (Eds.), Ethnographies of Islam in China. University of Hawai'i Press

Nation, Religion, and Social Heat: Heritaging Uyghur Mäshräp in Kazakhstan (2020)
Journal Article
Harris, R., & Kamalov, A. (in press). Nation, Religion, and Social Heat: Heritaging Uyghur Mäshräp in Kazakhstan. Central Asian Survey, 40(1), 9-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2020.1835825

This article brings together archival and ethnographic research to explore the ways that expressive culture and intangible cultural heritage flow across national borders, how transnational communities in Central Asia engage with discourses and practi... Read More about Nation, Religion, and Social Heat: Heritaging Uyghur Mäshräp in Kazakhstan.

Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam (2020)
Book
Harris, R. (2020). Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam. Indiana University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1574p9g

China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is experiencing a crisis of securitization and mass incarceration. In Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam, author Rachel Harris examines the religious practice of a group of Uyghur women in a small village now engulf... Read More about Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam.

“A Weekly Mäshräp to Tackle Extremism”: Music-making in Uyghur Communities and Intangible Cultural Heritage in China (2020)
Journal Article
Harris, R. (2020). “A Weekly Mäshräp to Tackle Extremism”: Music-making in Uyghur Communities and Intangible Cultural Heritage in China. Ethnomusicology, 64(1), 23-55. https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.64.1.0023

This article provides an in-depth study and critique of the nomination and inscription of an item on UNESCO’s lists of intangible cultural heritage, and the developments following its acceptance. China is now a major partner in UNESCO’s heritage proj... Read More about “A Weekly Mäshräp to Tackle Extremism”: Music-making in Uyghur Communities and Intangible Cultural Heritage in China.

Islam by smartphone: reading the Uyghur Islamic revival on WeChat (2018)
Journal Article
Harris, R., & Isa, A. (in press). Islam by smartphone: reading the Uyghur Islamic revival on WeChat. Central Asian Survey, 38(1), 61-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2018.1492904

The official Chinese view of the Uyghur Islamic revival is overwhelmingly dominant. Because of the extraordinary measures taken to shield from international view the actual developments in the region and to silence Uyghur voices, we lack a clear sens... Read More about Islam by smartphone: reading the Uyghur Islamic revival on WeChat.

Applied experiments in collaboration along the Silk Road (2018)
Journal Article
Harris, R. (2018). Applied experiments in collaboration along the Silk Road. The world of music (Wilhelmshaven), 7(1+2), 37-59

This paper considers the nature of work done in performances that seek to “create bridges” across cultures and to highlight shared heritage across political borders. What agendas are privileged, and what forms of representation are entailed? I explor... Read More about Applied experiments in collaboration along the Silk Road.

Introduction: Sharing space? Sharing culture? Applied experiments in music-making across borders (2018)
Journal Article
Wood, A., & Harris, R. (2018). Introduction: Sharing space? Sharing culture? Applied experiments in music-making across borders. The world of music (Wilhelmshaven), 7(1-2), 7-16

Sharing Space? Sharing Culture? Applied Experiments in Music-Making Across Borders (2018)
Book
Harris, R., & Wood, A. (Eds.). (2018). Sharing Space? Sharing Culture? Applied Experiments in Music-Making Across Borders. Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung

Theory and Practice in the Music of the Islamic World: Essays in Honour of Owen Wright (2017)
Book
Harris, R., & Stokes, M. (Eds.). (2017). Theory and Practice in the Music of the Islamic World: Essays in Honour of Owen Wright. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315191461

This volume of original essays is dedicated to Owen Wright in recognition of his formative contribution to the study of music in the Islamic Middle East. Wright’s work, which comprises, at the time of writing, six field-defining volumes and countless... Read More about Theory and Practice in the Music of the Islamic World: Essays in Honour of Owen Wright.

The New Battleground: Song-and-dance in China’s Muslim borderlands (2017)
Journal Article
Harris, R. (2017). The New Battleground: Song-and-dance in China’s Muslim borderlands. The world of music (Wilhelmshaven), 6(2), 35-56

In a speech at China’s National People’s Congress in March 2014, the deputy chair of the China Dancer’s Association, Dilnar Abdulla, complained that ‘religious extremists’ in the Muslim region of Xinjiang were ‘campaigning for the commoners not to si... Read More about The New Battleground: Song-and-dance in China’s Muslim borderlands.