Dr. Aida Aaly Alymbaeva

Guest Lecture at the Institute of Ethnology 11.11.2021

Abstract: In this presentation, I reflect on the state of social/cultural anthropology in post-soviet Kyrgyzstan and the role it can play in the wider postcolonial studies paradigm. I argue that Kyrgyz anthropologists, by engaging topics such as ethno-nationalism and gender in their ethnographically-rooted studies, in effect decolonize the Western scholarly gaze that often directed them to these topics in the first place. This local spin on western concepts might lead to new questions and perspectives. For instance, if we define coloniality as a state in which the ‘local’ is dominated and alienated from its genealogies of thought by an 'outsider'-knowledge canon, present-day Kyrgyzstan is not only in a post-colonial position vis-à-vis Russia but experiences a new wave of ‘internal colonialism’ in the form of Islamisation and/or heightened Kyrgyz nationalism.

Thursday 11.11.2021, 10:00

Seminar room of the Institute of Ethnology

Na Florenci 3, Praha 1, 5th floor

ONLINE MS Teams here

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