Authors
Olga Mun1; 1 Oxford University, UK Discussion
This paper by Olga Mun (University of Oxford) explores reparative approaches to knowledge production through art, pedagogy, and collaborative practice in Central Asian and diasporic contexts. Drawing on her essay-performance Unlearning Central Asia and the collective art intervention The Invisible 130, Mun interrogates how narratives of ethnicity, migration, and belonging are shaped by both national and academic epistemologies. Through the Korean concept of bottari—a textile bundle symbolizing displacement and care—she reimagines performance as a reparative act that acknowledges shared pain and fosters collective reflection. The paper critiques the limitations of current decolonial discourses that risk reproducing exclusionary or careerist logics, proposing instead reparative praxis rooted in relationality, humility, and embodied participation. By bridging academic writing, performance, and communal art-making, Mun offers an alternative model of scholarship—one that transforms unlearning into a generative process of connection across languages, histories, and affective geographies. 
