Abulaiti Aisimutilamu
DPhil Student
abulaiti.aisimutilamu@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
Research Topic: Imagining East Turkestan: Competing Visions of Statehood, Islam, and Nation, 1877–1949
Supervisor: Dr Eric Schluessel
I am a DPhil student in History at the University of Oxford and a scholar at the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre. My research interests lie broadly in the intellectual, political, and religious history of modern East Turkestan and Central Asia, with particular attention to Islamic scholarly networks, nationalism, and state-building. My DPhil dissertation, entitled “Imagining East Turkestan: Competing Visions of Statehood, Islam, and Nation, 1877–1949,” explores how religious scholars, intellectuals, and political leaders developed competing visions of political sovereignty and national identity. I am particularly interested in the establishment of the East Turkestan Islamic Republic in 1933, the influence of transnational Islamic networks, and how local communities experienced and remembered these historical events.
Before joining Oxford, I earned an MPhil in History from George Washington University and an MA in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. I also hold a BA in Islamic Studies from Istanbul Şehir University.
Publications
Aisimutilamu, A., & Kara, M. T. (2018). Symposium "Modernization, Protestantization and Salafism: Instrumentalization of Matn/Nass in Modern Islamic Interpretations", 22.-24. September 2017, arranged by ISAR (Istanbul Arastirma ve Egitim Vakfi) in Istanbul/Turkey. Hikma, 9(1), 144+.
