Emile Dirks

Banner Image: Tiananmen, Beijing (2017)

Emile Dirks is a PhD candidate in the University of Toronto's Department of Political Science. Raised in London's Old South, Emile attended elementary school at Wortley Road and Mountsfield, and high school at South Secondary.

Emile's research explores the policing of "key populations" viewed by China's Ministry of Public Security as threats to social stability, including users of drugs, religious practitioners, petitioners, and people with criminal records. Through his work, Emile investigates the intersection of crime control and political repression in contemporary China. His research on a police DNA collection program targeting tens of millions of men and boys across China was the basis for reports by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and The New York Times.

Previously, Emile served as a research associate at the London School of Economics' former International Drug Policy Unit, where he built a bilingual English-Chinese open access database on drug use, judicial sentencing, and detention in China. Emile was also a visiting scholar at Yunnan University's School of Public Administration, where he examined community-based drug harm reduction and HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs in southwest China.

Emile's writing on domestic Chinese politics and state repression have appeared in Foreign Policy, The New York Times, VICE, The Diplomat, Jamestown, The Globe and Mail, East Asia Forum, and the Canadian International Council's Behind the Headlines. He can be reached on Twitter.

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