Short Abstract:

The roundtable will present Ketmen - the new peer-reviewed Central Asian journal established at the American University of Central Asia. Organizers invite CESS members to participate in the discussion of its concept and format and consider publishing with it or becoming its Editorial Board members.

Long Abstract:

This roundtable will present Ketmen - the new peer-reviewed Central Asian journal established at the American University of Central Asia. It is the journal that publishes articles on Central Asia from Central Asia. The main goal of Ketmen is to establish an international platform where scholars from the Central Asian region can publish their academic work and share it with scholars and readers both inside the region and globally. Ketmen is a word and instrument shared by all Central Asians. It means a hoe and it is used to dig the ground for a variety of purposes: soil tillage, creating irrigation ditches, mixing clay for bricks, making foundation for yurts, etc. One can think of all kinds of analogies: Ketmen will help till the soil of Central Asian academia and dig irrigation ditches for watering it and for connecting distant parts of the region with each other. It will help dig the foundations and mix the clay for raising the walls in the houses of local academic knowledge. Ketmen is also associated with hard and honest labor, connection to the folk on the ground and non-elitist status of the journal and its contributors. One of the main missions of Ketmen is to help Central Asian authors develop new theories, methodologies and academic styles. This is difficult to do without innovation and experimentation. That is why Ketmen is open to a variety of academic genres beyond traditional academic papers: essays, creative nonfiction, autoethnographies, storytelling, oral histories and others. It also encourages authors to experiment and innovate with methodologies, analysis and interpretations of their research. Ketmen allows authors to publish in English, Russian and any local languages of their choice (Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tajik, Uzbek or Turkmen). This adds to the experimental nature of Ketmen and to the multiplicity of its forms of expression. Organizers of the roundtable invite all CESS members to participate in the discussion of the concept and format of Ketmen and consider publishing with it or becoming its Editorial Board members.