Laura Murphy

She stood up to China. Now she’s exposing how her university caved in Emails released to the academic Laura Murphy reveal the full story of how her research into forced labour in China was blocked by Sheffield Hallam

“The cost that the researchers on my team face is the possibility that their parents and siblings will go to prison, that they themselves will be in eternal exile,” she says.

“And here’s a university that has only 73 Chinese students, saying we might lose our access to the Chinese student market.”

China: prominent journalist Dong Yuyu sentenced to prison on bogus espionage charges Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release of Dong Yuyu, a prominent Chinese journalist sentenced to seven years in prison on trumped-up accusations of espionage. He is one of 123 journalis...

#China: Today, the Beijing High Court upheld a 7 year prison sentence against prominent journalist Dong Yuyu on trumped-up spying charges. His only "crime" was maintaining contact with foreign diplomats. RSF is appalled by this decision and calls for his immediate release. #FreeDongYuyu

A university administrator wrote last summer that my team’s research on forced labor in the Uyghur Region of China and student recruitment in China were “untenable bedfellows.”

Today on the picket line at Sheffield Hallam University…

A human-rights researcher on why she pushed back when China bullied her university Democratic governments must resist authoritarian states trying to co-opt their institutions, writes Laura Murphy

A human-rights researcher on why she pushed back when China bullied her university

economist.com/by-invitatio...
from The Economist

Sheffield Hallam has stated publicly that it has apologized to me.

Here are those apologies.

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities

Documents show that for nearly two years Sheffield Hallam University complied with a demand from a Chinese Government foreign intelligence service to halt research about human rights abuses in China.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

A Luta continua.

Hey. Glad to be the badass of the day. Still a lot of work to do. 💪

Great report by my colleague @lauratmurphy.bsky.social on the importance of what UFLPA has done, what can reasonably be asked of it, and how it might be repeated elsewhere.

YouTube video by RTÉ - IRELAND’S NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA RTÉ Investigates: Forced Fashion | RTÉ

My investigation into the exposure of major retailers here in Ireland to forced labour cotton is going to be broadcast next Wednesday at 9.35pm on RTÉ One, with contributors including Kenneth Roth @lauratmurphy.bsky.social. Hope you tune in.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U8O...

Laura Murphy on Enforcing America’s Ban on Uyghur Forced Labor - The Wire China The academic talks about why governments need to redouble their efforts to keep products made using forced labor in Xinjiang off store shelves.

At @thewirechina.bsky.social, @eliotchen.bsky.social talks with @lauratmurphy.bsky.social about her research on supply chains and forced labor in Xinjiang, and how the Entity List can be a collaboration between academics and the US government.

Three Years On, Does the UFLPA Still Make Sense? Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said that China does not fully meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, nor is it making significant efforts to do so.

📦 Three years of the UFLPA:

@jasminchua.com assesses UFLPA’s record, drawing on
@csis.org work by @lauratmurphy.bsky.social + Charlotte Tate, finding the law reshaping supply chains, but warns that weak enforcement and corporate complacency threaten its impact.

sourcingjournal.com/topics/labor...

Three Years On, Does the UFLPA Still Make Sense? Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said that China does not fully meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, nor is it making significant efforts to do so.

"Political will is critical to the continued effectiveness of the UFLPA," @lauratmurphy.bsky.social + Charlotte Tate write for @csis.org.

@jasminchua.com covers their views on Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act effectiveness.

@sourcingjournal.com.web.brid.gy.

sourcingjournal.com/topics/labor...

If you’re around LSU on Wednesday, come for a talk I’m giving. I’ll be talking about how we use research to fight forced labor in China and the lessons we’ve learned that can be applied to fighting authoritarianism at home and abroad.

April 16, 4Pm
143 Coates Hall, LSU

'They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.' - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925

Why are academics too timid to raise our voices?

We have the platforms.
We are trained to speak.
We have extraordinary privilege.
We even have flexible schedules.

We teach about rights and equality.
Why aren’t we defending them?

We have to speak up now.

When we protested the Iraq War, our professors led the chants. They marched with us.

Professors at universities across the United States should be defending their students and themselves. Defending intellectual inquiry. Medical research. Human rights. The future we all worked so hard to build.

Today Loyola University New Orleans Law School *secretly* hosted a talk by Amy Coney Barrett. Students gathered outside to remind her that she is on the Supreme Court to uphold the constitution, not support dictatorship.

I was appalled to find that exactly ZERO profs came out to support.

This Monday at 9:30, come out to Loyola New Orleans law school to remind Amy Coney Barrett that her job is to uphold the constitution, not a dictator.

What I did today to fight authoritarianism:

My first call out to a university president by name for pre-complying with Trump’s demands instead of standing up.

You can do it too!! Write/call your Alma mater, the school you attend or your children attend, the uni down the road, etc.

What I did today to fight authoritarianism:

1) finished reading Applebaum’s Autocracy, Inc.

2) followed all the steps (except writing an op-ed) in the list of actions to defend the National Endowment for the Humanities listed in the link below.

‘No Way’ to Please Everyone: Columbia’s President Confronts Trump’s Ultimatum With Trump intent on making an example of Columbia, Armstrong is at the center of a fight over the future of higher education.

‘No Way to Please Everyone’ Says Only University Where Students Are Regularly Kidnapped

News flash: the *American made* washer/dryer I bought last week costs $200 more today than it did yesterday.

Who wins in a tariff war??

This is critical! We cannot let these cases be heard in Louisiana.

I wonder: are there protests or actions happening outside the detention centers?

Tune in to CSPAN live now for an incredible filibuster from Cory Booker. He’s been speaking for 20 hours, but he’s on fire.

Resources for federal workers continue being added to this list:

What I did today to fight authoritarianism:

1) donated to Trans Justice Funding Project for Transgender Day of Visibility

connect.clickandpledge.com/w/Form/64330...

2) postered my neighborhood for Int’l day of action on Saturday. So easy!

www.mobilize.us/handsoff/eve...

So true. This spot is especially weird. I have no idea why they even have a spot on Tchoup. But we do see a wide demographic passing that way, so it’s nice to get support from everyone.

Her cone (and its cause) is just one of the many plagues that befell our house last week. It was a truly cosmically bad confluence of horrific and weird events But she is recovering just fine. And the rest of us are too.