Abstract

Our roundtable will focus on interpreting the interpreters. For centuries, the narratives about Central Asia in global scholarship were weaved not by Central Asians themselves but by various interlocutors whether travelers or imperial agents. After 1991 Central Eurasia became a region that was seen more and more as a separate entity rather than (ex-)imperial “outskirts.” However, the baggage of past historical events as well as the tendency of looking at the region through the prism of realpolitik created a new imagined picture of Central Eurasia. Today, the problem persists, as Central Asian scholars, activists and other actors often find themselves adjusting to alien paradigms or languages in order to be better understood - or funded.

Foreign journalists, scholars or grant officers who work on Central Asia are often becoming unwilling vouyeurists who simultaneously are able to exert more discursive power than the subalterns whose lives they interpret. The question these interlocutors often ask themselves is how can they interpret central Asian communities most accurately while remaining ethical and impartial.

Analyzing how the interlocutors imagine and present Central Asia and how the external discourses on Central Asia shape both the understanding of the region as well as the region itself is a crucial endeavor that would be the central goal of this panel.

Panel particiants include both local and external researchers, which provides a great opportunity for introspection. Zinedin Aldiyarov is a PhD student in Eurasian Studies at Nazarbayev University, his research focus is on intellectual history, history of revolution and of the Narodniki movement. Ivan Sokolovskiy is a PhD student in Eurasian Studies at Nazarbayev University, his research focus is on early Soviet history and history of Stalinist deportations. They are joined by journalists Agnieszka Pikulicka and Dan Storyev. Pikulicka runs her independent media Turan Tales which focuses on untold stories from Central Asia. She is an award-winning reporter and author of Nowy Uzbekistan (in Polish). Dan Storyev focuses on post-Soviet space more broadly, he writes about ideologies and modern conflicts. His work on Kazakhstan was nominated for the prestigious Redkollegia award. Storyev is a co-author of the upcoming Surviving Authoritarianism.