Dr David Tobin
Dr David Tobin’s research examines the interplay between identity and security in global politics, with an area studies specialisation in China and Asia. He has recently submitted his first monograph to Cambridge University Press, ‘Rebuilding China: Identity and Insecurity on the Northwest Frontier’. This analyses how state-level security discourses are practiced in everyday politics in Xinjiang and the security dynamics this creates for the state and society. Specifically, David analyses the way China treats ethnic identity as a domestic and international security issue and how ethnic minorities respond with alternative security discourses, challenging the authority of the state.
David led and organised the Scottish Centre for China Research (SCCR) Seminar series at the University of Glasgow for two years (2013-2015). He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.
David can be contacted at davidistobin@gmail.com.
Selected publications
Tobin, David (2016)‘Between Minkaohan and Minkaomin: Discourses on ‘Assimilation’ Amongst Uyghurs’, in Smith, Joanne and Zang, Xiaowei (eds) Language, Education, and Uyghur Identity in Urban Xinjiang,Abingdon: Routledge.
Tobin, David (2015)‘Worrying About Ethnicity: A New Generation of China Dreams’, in Kerr, David (ed) China’s Many Dreams: Comparative Perspectives on China’s Search for National Rejuvenation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tobin, David (2011) ‘Competing Communities: Ethnic Unity and Ethnic Violence on China’s Northwest Frontier’, Inner Asia, 13/1.