We are pleased to announce that HRREC student member Hokbi Tiunn successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis, entitled Sexual and Reproductive Violence as Genocide and the Prevention of Genocide in Contemporary Asia: The Cases of the Rohingya and the Uyghurs, on May 28, 2026.
Hokbi’s dissertation examines how genocidal patriarchy manifests in contemporary atrocity contexts through the cases of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Uyghurs in China. These cases demonstrate how different forms of gendered violence and governance may converge within broader patterns of genocide. The dissertation calls for a rethinking of genocide law that attends not only to killing, but also to gendered forms of violence that target the group as such.
Hokbi’s research was supervised by Professor John Packer. Her oral thesis defence committee included uOttawa examiners and HRREC members Amanda Dale and Professor Nadia Abu-Zahra, Professor Nathasha Bakht, and Professor Emily Wills, who chaired the defence.
Congratulations, Hokbi, on this significant achievement. We wish you every success in your future endeavours!