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Reports and discussions of members of the working group, who conducted an NEH-funded workshop in the manuscript archives of the National Academy of Sciences in Bishkek (June 2022). Presentations of works in progress; future plans; problems of building digital humanistic scholarship in the field.

Abstract:

The EMKONS collaborative project works on historical, philological, linguistic, folkloric, paleographical, codicological, archival, and digital issues surrounding scholarship on oral-derived narrative sources arising in the Kyrgyz cultural and linguistic milieu from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. In addition to doing fundamental analytical research, we are also addressing conceptual problems relating to the epistemologies both of our sources and of the academic channels that utilize them (or may tend not to utilize them).

At last year's CESS conference our group presented a round-table panel on progress we had achieved mainly on the digital side of our activities, specifically the project website (https://emkons.lib.miamioh.edu/). In June 2022 we were able to meet in Bishkek to conduct research and plan further collaborative efforts. We intend to share the works in progress that resulted from our summer workshop, which we are planning to publish, and engage with other scholars in attendance on the potential impacts of the project in research (both traditional and digital) and education.