Dilber Thwaites completed her PhD in East Asian Studies at the Australian National University in 2003, with her dissertation topic “Zunun Kadir’s Ambiguity: the dilemma of a Uyghur writer under Chinese Rule”.
Since then she has lived in Canberra as an independent scholar and part-time language consultant. Among her publications and conference presentations are:
- 2011 – “Zunun Kadir’s Ambiguity: the dilemma of a Uyghur writer under Chinese Rule” published for open online access by the Australian National University.
- 2006 – “Women of Power in Uyghur Arts and Literature”, Paper presented to Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
- 2005 – “A Uyghur Meshrep Dichotomy”, in Central Eurasian Studies Review Vol 4, No 2, Summer 2005.
- 2000 – “The Road to Urumqi: Zunun Kadir’s Lost World”, in Worlds of the Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern, papers of Australasian Society for Inner Asian Studies 3rd Biennial Conference, published by Brepols, Belgium 2000.
- 1998 – “The Uyghur Intelligentsia 1920-1950 – Pawns or Martyrs?”, in Journal of Central Asian Studies Vol 1 no.2, Association for the Advancement of Central Asian Research, Oklahoma State University, USA.
- 1998 – “The Uyghur Elite 1920-1950: The Struggle for Self-Determination”, Bulletin (vol 5 no 2.), Centre for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University.
- 1997 – “Uyghur Writer Zunun Kadir:Between Revolution and Nationalism”, Fifth Conference of the Chinese Studies Association of Australia, Adelaide, South Australia.