Elise Anderson

Dr. Elise Anderson was a Senior Program Officer with Asia Programs, where she worked on the team’s portfolio of China diaspora-related projects. In addition to her role at Freedom House, Elise also worked as a nonresident senior fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and will teach a graduate seminar titled “The Xinjiang Crisis” in the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University in spring semester 2025. Previously, Elise worked in human rights and rule of law research, research-based advocacy, academic grant-writing, university teaching, and editing. She is widely recognized as an expert on Uyghur issues, having spent nearly the past two decades in close engagement and study on the topic, including four years living and conducting academic research in the Uyghur Region between 2012 and 2016. She has given dozens of talks and lectures at universities and other institutions, testified before the Canadian House of Commons and Uyghur Tribunal, and interpreted between Uyghur and English before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Her commentary on the Uyghur crisis has appeared in a number of major media outlets, and her research has been published in both scholarly and public-facing journals. She is also a trained vocalist, musician, and dancer who has formally studied classic Uyghur music (among other idioms). She earned dual Ph.D. degrees in Central Eurasian Studies and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University-Bloomington.