How do you study places you cannot reach?

When governments restrict access and surveillance makes traditional research impossible, scholars must find new ways to understand distant realities.

Remote Chay brings together experts to explore two key questions: How can researchers study inaccessible regions? And what can we learn about Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region—one of the world's most heavily surveilled territories?

Our guests share insights on remote ethnography, a methodological approach for researching areas where traditional fieldwork is impossible. From digital anthropology to diaspora interviews, we explore innovative ways to gather knowledge across barriers of distance, politics, and control.

Remote Chay isn't just a podcast—it's an ongoing scholarly dialogue. We invite listeners to engage: comment, share insights, and help refine these approaches for studying the unstudyable.

Remote Chay launched in 2024 as part of the EU-funded project "Remote Ethnography of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region," a collaboration between Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, and Université libre de Bruxelles.