I have more than a passing interest in Xinjiang and Uyghurs, so if you ever want to post anything or just share a deeper level of info/news, please do. It's not the easiest place to get ahold of news about, especially if I'm not readily keeping up. Which I'm not :/ I think I see the tie between Kashmir and Xinjiang that it seems like you may be making if you're studying both, but I'd rather hear about from you, it sounds interesting.
It is a fascinating place! I don't know as much as I'd like on the subject as I've only really just begun digging into it but I can make a couple recommendations as to reading material and the like, if you're interested! It is pretty difficult to get info on what is currently happening in the area but there's a decent amount of material available on the 50s to the 80s (and the pre-CCP era). As to my dissertation, it is pretty embryonic at the moment but I'm comparing Indian and Chinese minority policies in the 50s and 60s, particularly in Xinjiang and Kashmir. They're both predominantly Muslim, exceptionally important to the idea of the Chinese and Indian nation-states, and basically represented the 'frontier' to both central governments. And I guess I'm just interested in comparing the two modern countries in general, as they're actually a bit more similar than people generally suspect.