Authors

Olga Mun¹; Marina Solntseva²; Denis Esakov³; Svetlana Ananyeva⁴;  ¹ Oxford University, UK;  ² FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany;  ³ Independent curator, Germany;  ⁴ Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Kazakhstan

Discussion

“Reparative Practices and Decolonial Unlearning: Literature, Art, and Collective Knowledge”

This panel engages with the aims of the BASEES 2026 Annual Conference, particularly its commitment to “decentring and decolonising the study of the region.” It brings together scholars and practitioners whose work bridges literature, art, and political thought to reimagine East European and Central Asian contexts as sites of epistemic plurality and reparative knowledge-making.

Participants include Marina Solntseva (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg), Denis Esakov (Berlin-based curator and founder of de_colonialanguage), Dr. Svetlana Ananyeva (Head of International Literary Relations, Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Kazakh Academy of Sciences), and Olga Mun (University of Oxford).

Solntseva examines imperial aetiology and the politics of protest in Russia and Belarus; Esakov reflects on linguistic activism and curatorial praxis through de_colonialanguage and the Open Air Museum of Decoloniality; Ananyeva analyses Kazakh literature through authorial intentionality and mythopoetic frameworks; and Mun’s essay-performance Unlearning Central Asia foregrounds reparative, rather than purely decolonial, approaches to knowledge production.

Together, the panel highlights how art, literature, and collective practices can reframe East European and Central Asian studies beyond extractive paradigms, fostering relational and participatory modes of scholarship in line with BASEES’s evolving intellectual agenda.